Born in 1984 as a child of a German father and a Spanish mother, Miguel grew up in Madrid where he attended the German School. After graduating, he moved to Freiburg (Germany) where he studied Political Science, Economic Policy and Current and Modern History. Motivated among other reasons by his bi-national background he focused on International Relations and EU Studies. Miguel has worked as student assistant at Freiburg University’s Department of Political Science where he was in charge of the university’s delegation to the largest UN simulation. As intern at a German research institute focusing on research into developing countries, he contributed to research projects dealing with Latin America. Both previously and subsequently, Miguel worked at the European Parliament, first as a trainee dealing with the Committee on Legal Affairs, and subsequently after graduation, he worked for Elmar Brok, MEP, rapporteur on the establishment of the European External Action Service.

His research interests include the role of the European Union as an international actor, interregionalism and the promotion of regional integration, institutional development of the EU and inter-institutional affairs.

Title of research project: Exporting Patterns of Governance and Regional Integration? Assessing the effectivity of EU interregional policy.

Supervisor: Professor Lenka Rovná (Charles University Prague)

Co-Supervisor: Professor Wolfgang Wessels (University of Cologne)

This PhD project focuses on the internal impact that the EU’s relations towards other regions (often termed as interregionalism) exert on the regional organisations involved and on their member states. It concentrates on the diffusion of patterns of governance and regional integration, which are understood as ideas and concepts that can be transmitted from one actor to another by different means. This approach also allows assessing the impact and effectivity of interregional relations as a tool of foreign policy. By concentrating on the internal implications of interregionalism, the envisaged project also seeks to address the empirical gap that characterises many studies on interregionalism. In order to achieve this, interviews will used to test the hypotheses of the project. Taking as case study the EU’s policy towards Latin American regional organisations, the project follows three main goals:

(I) To assess the internal impact of interregionalism,

(II) to assess the effectivity of interregional relations as a tool of EU foreign policy and

(III) to empirically test theories of interregionalism.

Alcaro, R. / Haubrich Seco, M. (eds.) (2012): Re-Thinking Western Policies in Light of the Arab Uprisings, Rome: Nuova Cultura, ISBN 978-88-6134-778-6.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): Decoupling Trade from Politics. The EU and region-building in the Andes, IAI Working Paper Series, 11-20, July 2011, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome (http://www.iai.it/pdf/DocIAI/iaiwp1120.pdf).

Seminar at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) on "Promoting regional integration: Lessons from EU-Latin America relations", Rome, September 22nd 2011.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): EU promotion of regional cooperation. Tracing its impact, Paper presented at the 7th Graduate Conference Hebrew University (Jerusalem), December 15th 2011.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): EU promotion of regional cooperation in the African Union – supporting symbolic regionalism or bringing about peace?, Paper presented at the UACES Student Forum 12th Annual Conference "New Frontiers in European Studies", June 30th - July 1st 2011, Guildford, UK.

Book reviews, conference reports and other contributions:

Haubrich Seco, M. (2012): Overcoming the sui-generis argument? A look abroad for EU Studies. Review of 'Van Langenhove, Luk; Warleigh-Lack, Alex, eds. (2010): Rethinking EU Studies. The Contribution of Comparative Regionalism, Special issue of the Journal of European Integration', in: The International Spectator 47(1), pp. 161-163.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): Re-thinking Western Policies in Light of the Arab Uprisings. Report of the Transatlantic Security Symposium 2011, Documenti IAI 11-14, October 2011, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome (http://www.iai.it/pdf/DocIAI/iai1114.pdf).

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): Review of 'Lavenex / Schimmelfennig, eds. (2010): EU External Governance. Projecting EU rules beyond Membership, Abingdon: Routledge, 2010, 158 p. - ISBN 978-0-415-56750-3', in: The International Spectator 46(3): 152-153.

German translation and editorial assistance for a book on the Lisbon Treaty by Enrique Barón Crespo (2011): Vertrag von Lissabon, Madrid: EuroEditions, ISBN 978-84-937711-8-8.

Seminar on External Relations of the European Union (together with Marlene Gottwald), University of Cologne, winter term 2011/2012.