Mediaboss Marketing

Thepchai Yong

The Nation

Publication Date : 14-10-2014

When the European Union (EU) announced it was downgrading its relations with Thailand to show its opposition to the military coup in late May, the reaction from many Thais was swift and harsh. The social media were swamped with nationalistic opprobrium, with some calling for a tit-for-tat response and others going as far as to say Thailand should shrug off any diplomatic pressure as it could easily live in isolation. A noted academic even urged the military junta not to kowtow to the EU, which he said was itself already becoming irrelevant because of its persistent financial crisis.

If anything, this particular episode illustrates one thing: Despite years of engagement between Thailand and the EU, Thais in general still have little understanding of the partnership that exists between them. The same is probably true with most other Asian countries, where the role of the EU is often under-publicised and only makes headlines when there are disputes.

For Thailand, it's unfortunate that the sudden turn in relations has come at a time when the EU is making vigorous attempts to enhance its ties with Asia. There are several reasons why pursuing stronger engagement with Asia is high on the agenda of the Europeans. Despite the distractions brought by its financial mess, the crisis in Ukraine, the civil war in Syria and the escalating threat of Muslim extremist group ISIS, European officials insist that the EU has not departed from its endeavour to forge closer ties in a wide range of areas in Asia.

In his recent speech, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy said European and Asian economies are as interdependent as ever and that their interdependency goes beyond economic ties. While critics continue to call for a clearer and more coherent strategic direction in its engagement with Asia, there seems to be a general agreement among many analysts that much progress has been made since 2012, which EU policymakers described as a "pivotal" year. It saw an unprecedented series of high-level meetings and visits that culminated in the 9th Asia-Europe summit in Laos.

In recent briefings in Strasbourg and Brussels for Asian journalists, European officials emphasised that European engagement with Asia spans beyond traditional security and economic dimensions. Asean is now EU's third-largest trading partner and the action plan the two groupings adopted in 2012 has paved the way for a more comprehensive cooperation that incorporates people-to-people dimensions to cover areas like food security, human rights, disaster prevention, energy security, human and drug trafficking and urbanisation.

The EU has also engaged in a number of mediation activities in this region. It played an important role in the Aceh peace mediation process, which eventually led to the signing of the peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement, ending years of bloodshed that had cost thousands of lives. The EU's sanctions against Myanmar's military government, though at times a source of conflict with Asean, are also credited for forcing its military leaders to embark on democratisation.

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What has Europe ever done for us?

Talk about internationalization in higher education has been front and centre in recent years. Embedded in that discussion is the argument that universities need to give their students more opportunities to experience different cultures first-hand.

As part of Dals efforts to give students those opportunities, the university has joined a new consortium.

"The Network Of America and Europa for Doctoral Mobility at UniversitieS" (NOVA DOMUS) is a research exchange program funded by the European Union through its famed Erasmus Mundus program. Led by the University of Barcelona, the exchange program involves a group of 12 top universities in Europe and North America and focuses on research collaboration in areas of medical sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and technology.

I am so pleased that Dal is a part of this initiative because it is a perfect fit with the objectives and proposed actions laid out in the universitys International Strategy, says Alain Boutet, Executive Director of Dals Office of International Relations.

While Dal currently has a multitude of exchange programs for its students, NOVA DOMUS stands out.

This is really a unique opportunity for Dals PhD students, post-doctoral fellows and research staff to work in a lab at one of the 11 partner universities, with travel and other expenses being covered," says Dieter Pelzer, associate dean of Graduate Studies. "Were excited to offer this kind of experience to groups that arent usually targeted in exchanges. Dal faculty will also benefit from hosting PhD students, postdocs and research staff from European partner institutions.

The intent is that the exchanges will allow researchers at Dalhousie to either expand current connections or forge new connections with collaborators at the partner universities.

Dal researchers are already collaborating with colleagues around the world. NOVA DOMUS provides a wonderful opportunity to support their collaborations with a highly respected set of European institutions, explains Pat Rodee, Director of International Research and Development at Dal.

Partner universities are:

The Faculty of Graduate Studies and International Research & Development within Dalhousie Research Services are working together to make the program a success.

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Dal joins European Unionfunded research exchange consortium

The European Union's humanitarian aid and development aid programmes are being compromised by EU debts, and budget cuts forecast for 2015. EurActiv France reports.

Europe's unpaid bills are accumulating, and with them fears for development aid and humanitarian aid.

Since 2011, the European budget has been amassing unpaid bills, which continue to rise in value. The budget is currently 26 billion euro in arrears, 23 billion of which are owed to the cohesion policy. This impacts the whole spectrum of European politics.

Unpaid bills

"Unpaid bills in the budget category of "Global Europe", which includes development aid and humanitarian aid, have reached 1 billion euro," according to a source close to the dossier.

Jacek Dominik, the European Commissioner in charge of the budget, has also raised the alarm. In a speech on 24 September, the Polish Commissioner said that the debts of the Financing Instrument for Development Cooperation (DCI) had accumulated to a value of "14 million euro since July".

The European Commission says that these arrears relate to payments to the Multi-Donor Food Security Trust Fund for 2009-2018 in Burma.

The lack of funds has also forced the EU to roll back some humanitarian aid programmes. "Some projects in the Sahel region of Africa, the Horn of Africa and Haiti have been postponed," the budget Commissioner announced.

Paring back humanitarian aid

According to Oxfam, the lack of funding will also affect other humanitarian aid programmes. "The impact of the EUs current constraints on humanitarian aid is already being felt by the beneficiary countries. For example, aid to Iraqi refugees in Jordan has been reduced. We are sending less aid to Yemen (housing, food security, etc.)" says Hilary Jeune, the head of European policy at Oxfam.

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Aid programmes hit hard by EU budget woes

Only one of the EU's proposed digital commissioners seems to be prepared to answer questions on Twitter

The likely next EU digital chief Andrus Ansip invited Twitter users to question him during an hour long Twitter chat

Anyone with a burning question about the European Union's upcoming tech agenda has the chance to get an answer during a Twitter chat on Wednesday with Andrus Ansip, who could soon be the European Commission's Vice-President of the Digital Single Market.

Ansip invited everyone to send him questions and suggestions. "Let me know what should be on my 'to-do-list' for the next 5 years," he tweeted to his rather modest Twitter following of about 3,000. Questions can be tweeted with the hashtag #AskAnsip and Ansip will answer some of them between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. CET on Wednesday.

Ansip is expected to share the Commission's digital portfolio with Gnther Oettinger in a realignment of its oversight of that area when Commissioner Neelie Kroes steps down along with the rest of the Commission on Nov. 1. Both candidates already got the green light from the European Parliament after it held confirmation hearings with the proposed Commissioners.

Although Ansip announced the Twitter Q&A last week, it hasn't have gathered a huge amount of interest so far. Looking at the tweets tagged with #AskAnsip some people seem to be concerned about net neutrality. "How can the EU enforce net neutrality?" asked one Twitter user, continuing -- apparently on a mobile device with autocorrect enabled -- "How can a costumer be sure his provider isn't voluntarily degrading a best effort service?"

Another user wanted to know what Ansip's mandate is "to run, govern and filter the internet."

Meanwhile, lobby groups are also taking the opportunity to question Ansip. The Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing (FEDMA) for instance seemed concerned about the upcoming reform of the EU's data protection rules. The organization wants to know if the Commission will consider industry self regulation as an adequate tool to ensure privacy and also asked what Ansip considers being the key principles of ethical personal data management.

Ansip, a 58-year-old former Estonian prime minister, decided to answer questions on Twitter after a suggestion by Julia Reda, a German Member of Parliament (MEP) for the European Pirate Party.

"It is an absolute novelty for designated EU commissioners to face direct questioning by the people ahead of the start of their mandate," Reda said, adding that this represents a further step in the democratization of the EU while giving the Internet community an opportunity to make their concerns heard.

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#AskAnsip: Proposed EU digital chief to answer questions on Twitter

The European Union wont repeat old mistakes that didnt work in the past to counter a worsening of the economic environment, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

The 28-member bloc will wait for the European Investment Bank and the European Commission to draw up a list of concrete investment projects by year-end and then decide how they can be financed, the minister told reporters before a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers in Luxembourg. The European Stability Mechanism, the currency blocs financial backstop, wont be tapped, he said.

We wont do this by using the capital stock of the ESM but, where appropriate, by a necessary increase in the capital of the EIB, Schaeuble said. We have plenty of options.

EIB chief Werner Hoyer said Sept. 13 in Milan that appropriate budgetary arrangements have to be made for the EUs development bank to play a bigger role in stimulating the regions economy. Hoyer said previously that the EIB is highly sensitive about maintaining its top credit rating, which is higher than that of most of its shareholders, the 28 EU countries.

Last week the International Monetary Fund cut its euro-area growth forecasts to 0.8 percent for 2014 and 1.3 percent next year. EU finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg tomorrow will call on the EU to identify projects that could be realized in the short and medium term and lay the foundation for a credible and transparent pipeline of projects, according to a draft statement obtained by Bloomberg News.

We need more investment, primarily in the private sector, secondly also in the public sector, but not all of those have to be publicly funded, they can also be privately financed, Schaeuble said. Europe needs an improvement in the institutional environment and sustainable fiscal policy, he said.

Frances budget deficit will amount to 4.4 percent of the economy in 2014 and 4.3 percent in 2015, violating the EUs 3 percent limit both years, even as the government plans spending cuts of 21 billion euros ($27 billion) in 2015, Finance Minister Michel Sapin said Oct. 1 in Paris. While EU treaties apply to all, Europe needs a debate about the proper monetary and budgetary policy mix to lift growth, he said Oct. 5.

Well wait for France to present its budget proposal and the structural reforms the government has announced. The commission will then give its verdict. These are the European rules, and the European rules, everybody says, are there to be respected, Schaeuble said. Im quite confident that a solution will be found in France.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rainer Buergin in Luxembourg at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Zoe Schneeweiss, Patrick Henry

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Schaeuble Says EU Growth Boost May Require EIB Capital Increase