European Institute for Asian Studies - Home Page and Latest News

LUNCHEON BRIEFING - PERSPECTIVES ON NORTH KOREA
Tuesday 1st July 2008, from 12:30 to 14:30hrs at EIAS - 67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels

Speaker:Mr. Allan Maxwell, Former European Commission Official
Chair: Mr. Glyn Ford, Member of the European Parliament

Based on his personal experience as a EU Senior Advisor to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation in New York and as a E.C Desk Officer for Korea, Mr. Allan Maxwell reviewed perspectives on North Korea and its relations with the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the EU. Throughout the presentation he attempted to identify and evaluate aspects of these relations which could contribute to progress in the Six Party Talks negotiations to end the nuclear standoff with North Korea which has menaced stability, regional and internationally, for some 15 years

Presentation (PDF)

Round Table Discussion on the theme of: How do Chinese business managers consider legal or agreed provisions to ensure environmental and social standards for the purpose of sustainable development?

Friday 23rd May, 2008 from 17:00 to 18:30hrs at EIAS, 67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels

Chair: Prof. Emeritus Sylvain Plasschaert - Universities of Leuven and Antwerp

The European Institute for Asian Studies organised, in agreement with Agrer S.A, a discussion with its members and associated researchers on the occasion of the METP programme in Brussels

Students - Visits

On 16th May 2008, EIAS hosted a group of post-graduate engineering students of the Brandenburg University in Germany. The group consisted of mainly Asian students and a few Latin American students. The aim of their visit was to familiarize themselves with the EU institutions in Brussels.

Another group of students from the National University of Singapore visited the Institute in their familiarization of the EU institutions on 22nd May 2008. These students were not only Singaporean but also students having origins in China, India and Malaysia.

In both visits, their interest was to discuss the EU?s relations with Asia.

It is evident that the EU?s visibility in Asia is increasing and this augurs well for EU-Asia relations as it goes beyond the inter-governmental relations.

Expert Roundtable on Myanmar/Burma: Moving Towards Democracy

10 April 2008 at The Centre (22, Avenue Marnix, B-1000 Brussels)

Chair: Mr. Mathew Heim, The Centre
Speakers:
Mr. Dick Gupwell - Secretary General, European Institute for Asian Studies, Mr. Harn Yawnghwe - Director of the National Reconciliation Program and the Brussels based Euro-Burma Office, Mr. Nick Grono - Deputy President, International Crisis Group, Mr. Bronislaw Geremek - MEP, Former Polish Foreign Minister and Activist with the Solidarity Trade Union, Mr. Timo Kivimäki - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Ms. Friederike Tschampa - Asia Unit General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union

The Expert Roundtable on Myanmar/Burma ? Moving Towards Democracy was organised by the European Institute for Asian Studies in collaboration with The Centre. The discussions were held under the Chatham House Rule.

Transitional Justice and Human Rights in Cambodia - From Communist utopia to genocide.

10 March 2008 at the European Institute for Asian Studies. (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels)

Speaker: Mr. Neou Kassie - President, Peace and Development Institute, Phnom Penh
Chair: Mr. Dick Gupwell - Secretary General, European Institute for Asian Studies asbl

Mr. Neou Kassie was formerly Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice until 2006. Earlier on he was the Human Rights Director of the Cambodian Documentation Commission and an occasional consultant to the UN Centre for Human Rights. He was Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Cambodian Network Council (CNC), a consultant to various human rights NGOs and a member of the nomination committee for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award. He worked for the United Nations Transitional Authorities in Cambodia (UNTAC) as an international translator specializing in law and human rights.

With the establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which became operational in 2006, the UN reached agreement with the government of Cambodia to hold surviving senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge accountable, to demonstrate that a fair and just process is possible. The outcomes remain yet to be seen.

This presentation focused on approaches of transitional justice in Cambodia and the present status of such a process. What will the real impact of the ECCC in Cambodia be? What other means or mechanisms are available to address human rights abuses?

As there has been little attempt to compare similar events in Europe and Asia, the speaker encouraged questions to discuss similarities and differences between the two regions. Are there lessons on prevention, reconciliation and accountability that can be gleaned from the Cambodian case? What major obstacles impede transitional justice in both Asia and Europe? What has been achieved so far and what perspectives of transitional justice are there in the two regions?

Abstract Kassie (PDF)
Report LB on Transitional Justice in Cambodia (PDF)

Third Informal European Parliamentary Dialogue on China - EU-China trade tensions in today's economic downturn

Tuesday 4 March 2008, 10:00 to 12:00 at the Altiero Spinelli Building, European Parliament, Brussels

Introductory remarks by Mr. Elmar Brok, MEP and Mr. Glyn Ford, MEP

Speakers:Mr. Pierre Defraigne, Director and Senior Research Fellow, Institut français des Relations Internationales (Ifri), Brussels Mr. Zhang Xiaotong, Third Secretary Chinese Mission to the EU

Taiwan's recent Parliamentary Elections and their Implications for Cross-Strait Relations

Tuesday 12 February 2008, 12:30 to 14:30 at the European Institute for Asian Studies (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels).

Speaker: Dr. Shih-Chung Liu
Chair: Mr. Georges Legros

Taiwan's recent parliamentary elections, held in January, the third since President Chen Shui-bien's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) first ousted the Kuomintang (KMT) from power in 2000, resulted in a sweeping victory for the KMT. This result may well be repeated in the presidential election, which will follow in March, where the KMT's candidate, Dr Ying-jou Ma, will be contesting against the new DPP leader, Frank Hsieh. In the parliamentary elections, the KMT romped home with 81 seats, as against only 27 for the DPP. Other parties won 5 seats. As a result of changes to the electoral system, Taiwan's new Parliament will have 113 members, as against 225 members in the outgoing Parliament.

Given the significant differences in the policies of the two main parties towards mainland China, with the DPP leaning towards a more overt expression of independence for Taiwan, while the KMT favours a closer rapprochement with the People's Republic, the outcome of these elections, particularly if it is repeated in the presidential contest, may have important implications for Taiwan's future relations with Beijing.

Dr Shih-chung Liu studied politics and international relations at the universities of Soochow and Tamkang in Taipei, before studying for his PhD at Columbia University in New York. He has worked as the Deputy Director in the DPP's Department of International Affairs and worked for the Taipei Times and the Taiwan News, before joining the Office of President Chen Shui-bien as a Senior Counsellor. More recently, he has served as Vice-Chair of the Research and Planning Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr Liu will discuss the outcome of the January Parliamentary elections and the impact that this second democratic change of government will have on Taiwan's political future. He will also consider the likely implications of these elections for Taiwan's future relations with the People's Republic of China across the Taiwan Strait. His talk will be followed by a discussion.

Report Taiwan Lunch Briefing (PDF)

The World Bank’s Strategy on Sustainable Development and Climate Change in East Asia

Friday 1 Friday 2008, 12:30 to 14:30 at the European Institute for Asian Studies (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels)
Speaker: Mr. Christian Delvoie, Sector Director for Sustainable Development of the East Asia and Pacific Region at the World Bank

Chair: Mr. Dick Gupwell, Secretary General of the European Institute for Asian Studies

Mr. Delvoie discussed the World Bank's strategy on sustainable development and climate change in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region, which aims at improving the quality of life, ensuring the quality of growth, and protecting the quality of the global commons in EAP.

He outlined key trends shaping the region's environmental agenda and the World Bank's support to countries in the EAP region in their efforts to address environmental challenges in recent years. He also set out the key objectives and the course of action for the Bank's work in the region taking into account the great diversity of local and country conditions.

Christian Delvoie, a Belgian national, is Sector Director for Sustainable Development of the East Asia and Pacific Region at the World Bank. He is a long-term development professional with extensive experience in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. He holds a Master's degree in Economic and Social Sciences from Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur.

Workshop on "Labour Issues related to the EU's Free Trade Agreements with Asian Countries (ASEAN, India and the Republic of Korea): ITUC Proposal to the Commission"

Thursday 31 January 2008 at the European Institute for Asian Studies (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels)

Round Table on Afghanistan

Wednesday 23 January 2008 at the European Institute for Asian Studies (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels)

Speaker: Ms. Claire Galez
Chair: Mr. Dick Gupwell, Secretary General of the European Institute for Asian Studies

North Korea – Another crisis looming?

Tuesday 22 January 2008, 12:30 to 14:30 at the European Institute for Asian Studies (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels)

Speaker: Mr. Glyn Ford, Member of the European Parliament
Chair: Mr. Dick Gupwell, Secretary General, European Institute for Asian Studies

Pyongyang and Washington signed up at the beginning of October to a second series of measures in an attempt to end the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula following the much-delayed closure and sealing of the Yongbyon nuclear plant agreed in February and the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

We've been here before. The devil is in the detail. A senior official in the International Department of the Workers Party of Korea was confident that the United States would accept the North's disablement of their nuclear facilities with the removal of key components and their storage under strictly monitored conditions. He was less confident that the United States would accept Pyongyang's declaration.

With a new round of talks in December and the simultaneous election of the South Korean President, ingredients are all ready for either breakthrough or breakdown.

Glyn Ford who advocates a changing regime rather than a regime change is concerned that the issues at stake are being used by some conservatives in Japan, the United States or South Korea to suit their own agenda.

Glyn Ford, Member of the European Parliament since 1984 is at present a member of the European Parliament's Delegation to the Korean Peninsula. He has visited North Korea over ten times, his last trip being in October 2007 for an EU workshop in Pyongyang on economic modernization. He has also been a Member of the Parliament’s Delegation to Japan since 1984. He is the European representative at the Northeast Asia Economic Forum's and the only European politician to be a founding member of the Forum of Democratic Leaders of the Asia-Pacific that was set up in 1994 by Kim Dae Jung, Sonia Gandhi and Corazon Aquino. He is currently a visiting Professor at the University of Illinois. He was a visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo (1983) and a POSCO fellow at the East West Centre in Hawai in summer 2005.

Glyn Ford's book "North Korea on the Brink: Struggle for Survival" was published by Pluto Press in January 2008.

Second Informal European Parliament Dialogue on China – EU-China : A common Future ?

Tuesday 18 December 2007 at the Altiero Spinelli Building, European Parliament

It was an appropriate moment, after the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress and the China –EU Summit, to take stock of the EU-China relationship as negotiations got under way for the new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

This was discussed in conjunction with the publication of a book entitled “EU-China: a Common Future” and a debate took place on a number of key questions raised, such as:

What is the current state of the EU-China relationship?
What are the perceptions and expectations?
How are these affected by the US factor?
China's role in international conflicts?

The book is an interesting exercise in EU-China cooperation. Edited by Stanley Crossick & Etienne Reuter, there are over 30 Chinese and European contributors. They include Glyn Ford, David Fouquet, Gustaaf Geeraerts, Fraser Cameron, Andrew Small, Pierre Defraigne, William van Kemenade and Meng Jing (several of whom were present and led the discussion).

Europe-China Academic Network Annual Conference – China after the 17th Party Congress

11-12 December 2007, Crowne Plaza Hotel - Brussels

Round Table Discussion on EU-China - Business Meeting

Tuesday 11 December 2007, 10:00 to 12:00 at the European Institute for Asian Studies, 67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels

Speakers: Prof. Jonathan Story – INSEAD, Prof. Jeremy Clegg – Leeds Business School
Chair: Dr. Fraser Cameron

Trade and Business Summit – EU-India Trade Relations and beyond: Dynamics of Mergers and Acquisitions and role of Corporate Governance 3-4/12/2007

China’s Foreign Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Wednesday 14 November 2007, 12:30 to 14:30 at the European Institute for Asian Studies (67, Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels)

Speaker: Dr. Yuqun Shao
Chair: Mr. Dick Gupwell, Secretary General European Institute for Asian Studies

Much has been said and written recently about China's "peaceful rise". China is very active in foreign affairs, both as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and in its bilateral relations.

Dr. Yuqun Shao is currently the Deputy Director of the Department of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies (SIIS). She was formerly the Deputy Director of the Department of American Studies and the Director of the Department of Research Management and International Exchanges. She was also a member of the Chinese observer group in the Kyrgyztan Parliamentary Election of 2005.

Dr Shao has written extensively on Sino-US relations (including trade matters), on China's relations with the Russian Federation and the countries of Central Asia and on China's membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. She has also written on China's relations with Taiwan.

Dr Shao brought an extended visit to Europe, where she was focussing on current EU-China relations. She was well placed, therefore, to provide an overall picture of China's foreign policy