Directorate for international cooperation

The European Union Information Centre

Head Kuznetsova Anastasia Alexandrovna Anokhina str., 20, office#406 Tel./Fax: (814-2) 71-96-14 e-mail: euic@psu.karelia.ru

The European Union Information Centre is a structural department of the Directorate for International Cooperation of Petrozavodsk State University. The European Union Information Centre was opened in Petrozavodsk State University in 2002. This Centre was the 10th centre that was founded by the Representatives of the European Commission in the regions of the Russian Federation. By that time such centres had existed in Saint-Petersburg, Saratov, Kazan, Kaliningrad, at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), Moscow State International Institute of International Relations and Moscow State University.

Nowadays there are 13 centres in the Russian Federation. The main aim of these centres is the assistance with the development of European research in the Russian Federation.

The EU Information Centre in PetrSU helps to develop cooperation between Petrozavodsk State University and different funds and institutions of the European Union. It provides good possibilities for the activities connected with the European research. Moreover, this is the second largest information centre in the north-west of Russia. Thus its speciality is also the cooperation with Northern European countries as main neighbour partners.

Within the framework of its activity the Centre is engaged with gathering, exchange and spreading of the information and literature about the EU and about its member countries. Besides that it helps the university staff, students, post graduate students and just ordinary people with getting all the information about the activity of the European Union, about the development of the process of the European integration so that they could fulfil their research. It provides consulting services for research implementation and organizes different conferences, seminars, schools, round-table discussions, lecturers, etc. It also provides consultations on the possibilities of getting education in the institutions of the European countries, the preparation and submission of necessary documents. Thus the centre stimulates the academic mobility. It also provides information and consultations for physical persons and legal entities on project activities within the framework of the European Union programmes and implements its own projects as well. The Centre actively cooperates with various funds and organizations in order to implement the exchange of information on the organization of seminars, conferences, discussions so that the citizens of the Republic of Karelia could also take part in them. For these purposes we publish information about different events on PetrSU web-site so that more people could know about them. Besides that the EU Information Centre runs its own library. The Centre is opened for all comers and the visitors of the centre are not only students, lecturers and staff members of PetrSU but also the representatives of such groups of other educational institutions in Petrozavodsk, for example, the Karelian State Pedagogical University, as well as the representatives of different organizations and just ordinary people. The most frequent visitors are the students of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, the Department of International Relations, particularly, the Faculties of Economics, History and Law. The library includes about 4500 items which are included into electronic catalogue. Visitors can read books and magazines here in the room and in case of necessity they can also loan them for one month and study at home. In the centre they can use computers with the access to internet. Using it they can get access to the EU databases such as EUR-LEX, PreLex, EU Bookshop. We also possess capabilities for printing, making copies and faxing. The Publication Office of the European Union regularly provides us with paper and electronic materials and literature on the EU issues that provides great possibilities for the implementation of research. The Delegation of the European Commission regularly provides us with the Collections on the possibilities to get European scholarship and the Erasmus Mundus programme that we actively distribute among our visitors. The library resources includes items that are divided into sections, for example, regional policy, human rights, education, economy, ecology, jurisprudence and others.