His Excellency Mr David Daly, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to New Zealand and His Excellency Mr Csaba Gábor, Ambassador of Hungary will be visiting the NCRE.

• 2.10        Introductions and Welcome
  
• 2.15        Talk by Ambassador Gábor - "The Hungarian EU Presidency"
  
• 2.30        Talk by Ambassador Daly - "EU and External Relations" (eg. External Action Service, Council Presidency, High Representative)
  
• 2.45        Q and A

(Virtual Europe,4th floor Commerce building )

Mrs Róża Thun will talk about “The real impact of the European Union on the lives of its citizens based on the example of new EU members”. It will be a practical approach on what it means to being part of the EU.

Background: Spokesperson for the Student Committee of Solidarity (SKS) and co-operator of Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) (1977 - 1980). NGO's activist - General Director and Chairwoman of the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation (1992 - 2005).During the campaign before the accession referendum in Poland, Róża Thun initiated and coorganized many events and public debates on Polish accession to the EU. Head of the European Commission Representation to Poland (2005 - 2009). Since 2009 elections Member of the European Parliament, member of the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) and European People’s Party.

In the European Parliament, Róża Thun works in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and, as a substitute, in the Committee on Culture and Education. She is also a member of the Delegation for relations with Israel and the Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly as well as a substitute member of the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council. In the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, she fights for a better functioning of the single market for citizens and businesses. She particularly works on digital agenda, citizens rights and implementation of EU legislation in the area of the single market. She initiated the idea of organizing the Single Market Forum, which will take place for the first time in November 2010, in Brussels.

In the Committee on Culture and Education, Róża Thun defends Europe’s cultural heritage and cultural diversity, while also dealing with issues of digital agenda. She advocates for creating a widespread and safe access to information by increasing access to broadband Internet, especially in rural areas. Currently, she is preparing the legislative opinion on the proposal for a regulation on Citizens’ Initiative.

(Virtual Europe,4th floor Commerce building )

Monday

07 November 2011

at 3.10pm in

Kirkwood Village KA04

Mr Karel Kovanda will present this seminar on "Europe’s Foreign Policy Architecture – Change and Consequence"

Karel Kovanda retired on 1 January 2011 from a senior position in the European Commission. He has been appointed to represent the European Union as Governor on the Board of Governors of ASEF (the Asia-Europe Foundation, the only organization of ASEM, the Asia-Europe Meeting). Kovanda is involved in a variety of other projects, including lecturing (at college level) and consulting, both individually and in collaboration with certain leading consulting companies. His experience includes 15 years as a senior diplomat, working for the European Commission, where he was Deputy Director-General 2005-2010, and for the Czech Foreign Service. Senior positions here included Ambassador to NATO (1998-2005), Deputy Foreign Minister (1997-1998) and Ambassador to the United Nations (1993-1997).

Friday

18 November 2011

at 2.10pm in

Kirkwood Village KE06

Prof Dr Susanne Luetz will talk about “The Paradox of Weakness in Crisis Lending: How the EU Commission prevails over the IMF”.The cooperation between the IMF and the EU in credit lending to several Eastern European countries and related problems.

Abstract
The latest global financial crisis triggered economic hardship also among member states of the European Union (EU). To help countries in crisis, the International Monetary Fund and the EU have set up joint programs for Hungary, Latvia, Romania, among others. This paper analyzes the novel IMF-EU crisis lending coordination from a principal-agent perspective. We take an interesting empirical observation as our point of departure. The IMF has advocated more Keynesian economic policies, but the loan programs at best partly reflect its new approach. We seek to explain this discrepancy with the limited discretion that the European Commission as an agent of the EU member state is granted for negotiating the pro-grams with the IMF. There is, we argue, a “paradox of weakness” at work in crisis lending, which translates the Commission’s weak internal position into a strong external one vis-à-vis the IMF.

Dr Susanne Luetz is Professor for Political Sciences at the Free Uni Berlin, Germany.

Friday

25 November 2011

at 2.10pm in

Kirkwood Village KE06

Dr Annika Bjoerkdahl will discuss the "Peacebuilding in Divided Cities: A challenge to the EU" at the NCRE Roundtable Seminar.

Abstract
This research on Urban Peacebuilding in Divided Cities focuses on Nicosia, Belfast, Mostar and Mitrovica – all poignant symbols of violent conflict in our time. As a material and emblematic asset, the city is a central and contested space in many identity-based conflicts and they have proved remarkably resistant to international peacebuilding efforts aimed at reconstruction, reintegration and reconciliation. To explore the challenges and potential of the EU in urban peacebuilding these divide cities located outside and within the EU are compare and contrast. The EU’s administration of the post-war city of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina was a prototype for a unified Bosnia-Herzegovina. The second case is the EU’s history of reconciling divisions in Nicosia prior to and after Cyprus joined the EU in 2004.

Dr. Annika Björkdahl is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Lund University. She has published on issues relating to the role of international organizations in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding in the western Balkans. Her recent publications include the edited volume Peacebuilding and Justice: Peacemaking in the Middle East and the Balkans  2012 Routledge,with K. Aggestam conducted within EUFP7-project Just and Durable Peace, and War and Peace in a world in Transition 2009, Nordic Academic Press. Björkdahl has also published in journals such as Journal of European Public Policy, European Foreign Affairs Review, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Cooperation and Conflict, Peace and Change: Journal of Peace research. She is currently leading the research project on Contested Administrations (Swedish Research Council.) She is also conducting the research project Precarious Peacebuilding (Swedish Development Agency).