Our scholars 2020 – Rasa Volungeviciene

What is your legal and legal background, your current occupation and country of work?
I am a first year PhD law student at Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. I’m also a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, teaching business students criminal law and legal technologies.

How do you use European law in your current work?
The topic of my dissertation is Protection of the Financial Interests of the
European Communities: Problematic Issues after Implementation of the Directive 2017/1371. My primary focus of this research is the evaluation of evolution, development and efficiency of the fight against criminal offences which affects EU financial interests. In my thesis I am seeking to indicate different models which are used by EU member states for the implementation of the PIF directive and the cooperation of EU criminal institutions for efficiency in criminal matters.

What was your motivation for attending this particular event?
I have already attended an ERA event in the past and got plenty of useful insights – not only from the speakers but also from other participants. The interesting topic and huge variety of speakers during this Summer Course inspired me to ask for the scholarship, because the Vytautas Magnus university is unable to cover these expenses.

How did you benefit from the scholarship?
This scholarship allowed me to update my current knowledge on EU criminal law and to get a clear picture of the current situation of the EU legal system as well asproblems and upcoming issues. These insights and the newly gained knowledge from the training will allow me to share this information and experience with Lithuanian students adding European law aspects.
Thanks a lot for giving me the opportunity to attend this event; the key topics of this event allowed me to deepen my knowledge on EU criminal law and make it more comprehensive.