On 21 March 2014, the EU Centre in Singapore convened a workshop amongst the heads and representatives of the various EU Centres in the Asia-Pacific to discuss the subject of public diplomacy, specifically in relation to the European Union, and how the Centres translate the understanding of public diplomacy into their programmes and activities.

Directors and representatives from EU Centres in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau had a lively exchange on how we interpret public diplomacy and the role of EU Centres in EU’s public diplomacy. Besides sharing pointers on some of their main activities, we also discussed some of the challenges, and also the trends with regards to European Studies and EU Studies. Towards the end of the workshop, participants also discussed the outline of a book that will capture the various ways public diplomacy is conceived and exercised, the history behind the launch of the EU Centres’ initiative, and how EU Centres and Institutes around the world fit into the overall public diplomacy strategy of the EU. The outline of the book has since been elaborated, and can be accessed here.

EUCIasia

The Regional Newsletter for the European Union Centres / Institutes in East Asia

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Public Diplomacy Workshop

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Graduate Research Conference & Re-gional Roundtable

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News from the EU Centre in Singapore

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News from Partners 3

Recent Publications 4

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Twenty-nine graduate students from fourteen Asia-Pacific EU Centres met in Melbourne, Australia for a graduate research workshop hosted by the RMIT EU Centre on 17-18 February 2014. Graduates presented their papers in seven sessions throughout the two day workshop, with presentation topics that ranged from European identity to 3-D numerical modelling of unexploded ordnances (UXOs). Cont’d on page 2

UPCOMING    EVENTS  

EU-East Asia Think Tanks Dialogue on “Asia-Europe Meeting - The Way Forward”

5-7 June 2014

Co-organized with KAS, ISDS and FRIDE

EU Youth Forum

31 July-2 August 2014

Co-organised with Global Youth Congress International (GYCI)

 

EU Centres Graduate Research Conference. Photo: RMIT

EU Centre in Singapore organises Workshop on Public Diplomacy of Asia-Pacific EU Centres

Asia-Pacific EU Centres Graduate Research Workshop at RMIT

www.eucentre.sg

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The delegation from the EU Centre in Singapore consisted of Mr. Gaurav Jit Singh (LLM Student, National University of Singapore), who presented on the EU Single Patent, and Mr Dexter Lee (Programme Executive, EU Centre), who presented on the EU’s Democratic Development. Mr Gaurav Jit Singh’s paper was subsequently published as an EU Centre Working Paper (see page 4).

For more on the workshop, please click here.

Cont’d from page 1: RMIT Graduate Student Workshop

The EU Centre in Singapore celebrated Europe Day on 9th May 2014 with a short speech by the EU Ambassador, H.E Dr Michael Pulch on the achievements of the EU. Dr Pulch also shared with the audience the successful enlargement taken 10 years ago in 2004 to include several of the Cen-tral and Eastern European states. He shared his memories of a Europe divided by the Cold War and of the spirit of the people in that unique moment when Europe was once again brought together with the symbolic dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Together with Dr. Yeo Lay Hwee, Director of EU Centre in Singapore, Dr Pulch also congratulated and awarded the certifi-cates to the winners of the Infographics Compe-tition: The EU and Singa-pore: Policy Challenges

and Mutual Learning, a theme present throughout the event. For more on the winning entries, please click here.

Eight dancers from the Greek danSING Group then took the stage to present Greek folk dances, adding a special energy and flavour to the event. The Europe Day celebra-tions ended with an interactive session with three young Europeans residing in Singapore who shared their per-spectives on issues of immigration and diversity, the chal-lenges facing Europe, and their dreams and hopes.

EUC’s Europe Day Celebrations

EUC-KAS Panel Discussion on 2014 European Elections

The EU Centre and t h e K o n r a d Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) organised a panel discussion entitled “The 2014 European Elections:

Leadership Changes – Challenges and Impact on EU’s external relations” on 8th May 2014 at the Orchard Hotel. The four distinguished panelists of this discussion included Dr. Pawel Swieboda (DemosEuropa, Poland) Prof. Kostas Ifantis (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Prof. Pascal Vennesson (NTU RSIS) and His Excellency the EU Ambassador to Singapore Dr. Michael Pulch. Panelists presented what were at stake in the upcoming elections, and how the outcome would inform debates on future developments of the EU. Please click here for a full report on the panel discussion.

The European Union Centres Network in New Zealand hosted the 4th Regional Roundtable held at the Victoria University in Wellington on 13-14 February 2014.

The event attended by the Directors and researchers of EU Centres in the Asia-Pacific discussed topics ranging from the experiences in FTA negotiations and other regional projects in Asia and the EU to distill some lessons on region-building in the EU and Asia.

Dr Yeo Lay Hwee, Director of the EU Centre in Singapore, addressed the theme of the roundtable by noting that the EU has long been held up as a model of regional integration and the study of regionalism and regional integration has been very much influenced by the developments in Europe from the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) to the European Economic Community and the transformation into the EU. However, this euro-centric approach has been challenged with the rise of the idea of “open regionalism” which emerged in the 1980s, and in particular with the increase in interest on developments in the Asia-Pacific with the founding of APEC, and the emergence of what has been termed as “regionalist scholarship” in ASEAN.

Regional Roundtable on “What can the EU learn from Asian Regionalism?”

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EUAP HK Seminar on European Elections EUAP HK organised a seminar on 7th April 2014 at the Hong Kong Baptist University, where guest speakers Vincent Piket (Head, Office of the EU to Hong Kong and Macau), Juan Manuel Lopez-Nadal (Consul-General of Spain), Prof. Roger Vickerman (Dean of Europe, University of Kent/Brussels) and Kathleen Ferrier (former Dutch MP) discussed their personal views on the importance of the 2014 European Elections.

The seminar focused on the rise of euroscepticsm and the future of the European Union. Consul-General Lopez-Nadal stressed that there were differences in terms of Eurosceptic attitudes: radical parties in the south directing their anger at the EU’s policy response to the Eurozone crisis while their northern counterparts were turning against the European integration project.

Panelists acknowledged that the new European Parliament (EP) will have to address economic and political issues in order to reverse the tide of dissatisfaction towards the EU’s austerity measures, and they also emphasized on the need to reform the EU: Mr Lopez-Nadal was in favour of strengthening the EP to bring about more people-oriented social policies, Mr Piket argued that the European integration project could not go backwards while Ms. Ferrier predicted that the mainstream groups in the EP would be ready to form strong coalitions to counter the growing influence of the far-right in Europe.

EUAP HK Europe Day op-eds in HK dailies

To commemorate Europe Day, the EUAP HK’s Prof H. Werner Hess penned op-eds entitled “Europe Matters” in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and Ming Pao on 9th May. In order to understand the EU better, Prof. Hess argued that more attention should be paid to the vast and fundamentally ground-up process within the EU, rather than approaching the EU with the view that it is top-down, bureaucratic and wasteful.

Please click here for the English version of the op-ed.

The European Union Academic Programme (EUAP) Macau

Seminar by EU Director-General for Climate Action Dr Jos Delbeke The European Commission's Director-General for Climate Action, Dr Jos Delbeke, gave a seminar as a guest of EUAP Macau on the 22nd May 2014.

Dr Delbeke discussed the policies put in place by the EU to tackle global warming and highlighted the importance of participation from all countries during the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 in Paris.

Drawing from the EU experience, Dr Delbeke had a positive and encouraging message for all: fighting global warming is not contradictory with economic growth. Green policies and efficient economic measures can create jobs and increase GDP.

The seminar was followed by a Q&A session during which eager students of the University of Macau and other guests had a chance to profit from his expertise.

EUAP Macau celebrates Europe Day with Macau Model EU winners

The winners of t h e E U A P Macau Model EU competition joined the EUAP in celebrating Europe Day at the Institute for Tourism Studies on the 9th May 2014. Mr Vincent Piket, (Head Office of the EU to Hong Kong and Macau), Mr Christodoulos Margaritis (Consul General of Greece) and the EUAP team were on hand to present prizes to the Model EU winners. The ceremony also saw the University of Macau choir perform renditions of the anthems of the European Union and the People’s Republic of China.

Photo: EUAP Macau 2014 Photo: EUAP HK 2014

Photo: EUAP Macau 2014

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Background Brief 12: Infospective on the European Elections and the European Parliament by Dexter Lee and Devi Shree Malarvanan (EU Centre) This infospective (launched during the EUC-KAS European Elections panel discussion) covers the

history of the European Parliament, highlighting the changes in legislative powers that Parliament has from the 1970s. It also covers the issues and results of the previous seven European elections, and features a sneak peak of the 2014 European Elections.

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All rights reserved. This newsletter is produced by the European Union Centre in Singapore twice a year and no part of it may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the Centre.

Address: 11 Slim Barracks Rise, #06-01 Executive Centre, NTU@one-north campus, Singapore 138664 . Tel: (+65) 65132003

EU Centre at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Yeungnam University EU Centre

Partner EU Centres / Institutes in Asia

Policy Brief 7: In Pursuit Of Peace, Prosperity And Power – What ASEAN And EU Can Learn From Each Other? by Dr Yeo Lay Hwee (Director, EU Centre in Singapore) This policy brief compares and contrast the approaches taken by the EU and ASEAN in trying to

build peace and prosperity, and how they manage the demands of power politics to distill some lessons on what they can learn from each other in order to navi-gate an increasingly paradoxical world of economic interdependence but political fragmentation.

Working Paper 21: Unified European Front: The Road towards a European Unitary Patent by Gaurav Jit Singh (LLM, NUS Law School) This working paper first outlines the need for a unitary patent in the EU and then chronicles the

measures taken to support and milestones toward the creation of a European-wide unitary patent system. The paper also discusses the problems and pitfalls that have prevented European countries from coming to an agreement on such a patent system, and considers whether the unitary patent benefits one and all.

Background Brief 11: The Eu-ropean Union and global secu-rity: is the EU becoming the indispensable partner? by Dr Cesare Onestini (EU Visit-ing Fellow, LKYSPP) This background brief argues that the EU's weak decision-making provisions for security interven-

tions is the main reason for the Union's hesitant role in crisis management, and puts forward the view that the EU will have to define better what it is able to offer in order to strengthen cooperation with Asian partners in the area of crisis management.

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