Benjamin Couteau

Benjamin Couteau is a research fellow specialising in the European Union enlargement policy, with a focus on the Western Balkans and Turkey at the Centre Grande Europe of the Jacques Delors Institute since its inception, in 2022. His research examines the relations between the countries of the Western Balkans, Turkey, and the European Union, in particular in the framework of its enlargement policy, as well as the competing influences in the region.

Since joining the Institute in 2020, he has previously been in charge of the Institute’s working groups, and, from the 2021-2022 to 2023-2024 academic years, as the education manager of the Académie Notre Europe, the Jacques Delors Institute’s training programme. This programme provides each year education on European citizenship and knowledge of contemporary European issues to over a hundred students and young professionnals from nearly 30 countries, aged 18 to 30.

He holds a degree from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Human Rights and European law) and has also studied at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and Mykolas Romeris University (Vilnius, Lithuania). His master’s thesis focused on Turkey’s compliance with the Copenhagen criteria in the context of its accession process to the European Union.

He has also conducted research on the protection of fundamental rights in the European and inter-American systems. His working languages are French, English, and Spanish.