The 45th Annual Conference Programme

November 2024, Asia University: Days and time will be announced in the first week of April.

Plenary Session: Exploring the role of the EU as a global standard-setter

Plenary Session I    Japanese Session

Plenary Session II  English Session

Symposium: The EU and the economic security

Exploring the role of the EU as a global standard-setter

Recent events such as Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine seem to have revealed the EU’s weaknesses shown by economic populism and Euroskepticism in its Member States. Notwithstanding the above, the EU retains an influential, rule-making power over the global market. Its reach over rule-making has been observed to cover broad areas, including competition policy, environmental protection, food safety, privacy protection, and hate speech regulation. The mechanism of shaping this EU’s influential superpower in rule-making is such that it is naturally developed through the extraterritorial application of EU standards to multinational or foreign enterprises, or EU standards themselves mandate a country where such multinational or foreign enterprises are established to have the same level of EU standards. This can be symbolized by the term “the Brussels Effect.”

In the 2024 plenary session, we will discuss a wide range of issues around the EU’s global regulatory power, including the policy areas that are not sensitive enough to the Brussels Effect.

Symposium: The EU and the economic security

Against the backdrop of the US-China struggle for hegemony, strengthening economic security has become one of the most important agendas in many countries. The European Commission, following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine, released the EU’s economic security strategy on 20 June 2023, which highlights that the setting up of a common strategic framework for the EU’s economic security is in pressing need, and this should be achieved by the maximization of the EU’s benefits of its economic openness as well as the minimization of the risks from economic interdependence. While some values are shared with G7 member countries, its unique strategy, such as regulating outbound investment by EU enterprises to a certain extent, is justified in ensuring its “strategic autonomy.” Undoubtedly, the future direction and development of the EU’s strategic framework for economic security will significantly impact the third countries, including Japan.

In this regard, the 2024 symposium will pursue various issues relevant to economic security in the EU and other areas of the world.

The 44th Annual Conference Programme

November 25-26, 2023, Aichi University

Plenary Session: Ukraine Issues and the EU

Plenary Session I 13:00-14:50    Japanese Session

Plenary Session II 15:30-17:45   English Session

Symposium: The Fiscal and Monetary Policies of EU and the Euro under the Energy Crisis

Ukraine Issues and the EU

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and as of the end of October 2022, there has been no sign of an end to the Ukrainian conflict and the future is uncertain. During this period, the EU has adopted various measures and published relevant documents. For example, the EU adopted economic sanctions, which were adopted during the Crimean conflict in 2014, and modified them to apply to the current conflict, adopting new measures as necessary. In addition, EU Member States provide assistance to Ukraine in the form of arms transfers, which, by Council decision, takes place under aid measures under the European Peace Facility (EPF). This means that the arms transfers are now an EU budgetary measure and not a constituent country measure. In addition, Sweden and Finland, which had adopted a policy of neutrality, have announced their intention to join NATO and have been accepted. This may lead to a significant advance in the EU’s Common Defense policy in the future. In addition, on April 8, 2022, Ukraine and Moldova were formally recognized as candidate countries for EU membership. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also had a major impact on energy issues. The European Commission announced in its REPower Plan that it will move forward with its previous policy roadmap to move away from energy dependence on Russia. Even before the invasion of Ukraine began, the EU had been pursuing a wide range of “strategic autonomy” initiatives, from security strategy to digital and cyber, to the Green Deal, and their importance has been increasingly highlighted in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, we would like to discuss the Ukraine issue and the EU, taking into account such a strategic autonomy.

The Fiscal and Monetary Policies of EU and the Euro under the Energy Crisis

The EU economy, which was on the path to recovery from the recession by the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing energy crisis caused by Russian invasion of Ukraine. In response to the economic sanctions by the EU, Russia takes to restrict energy exports. This has led to a sharp increase in energy prices. Therefore, EU member states are experiencing so-called supply shocks. In fact, the inflation rate in EU has jumped nearly 10%. The European Central Bank has made a significant shift from monetary easing to tightening. On the fiscal policy side, targeted support is being sought to prevent inflation. However, there is also a high risk that this could suppress the economy and exacerbate inequality among member states.

EUSA ASIA PACIFIC CONFERENCE 2023

BANGKOK, THAILAND

Thursday 29 & Friday 30 June 2023

Twenty-five Years of EU Studies in the Indo-Pacific: challenges, changes, prospects.

The 2023 EUSAAP annual conference and postgraduate workshop hosted by Chulalongkorn University and EUSA Thailand will celebrate and revisit the state of EU Studies within our region. This past quarter century has seen a number of frameworks introduced spanning from the ASEM format initiated in 1996 to the 2021 EU Indo-Pacific Strategy, and interspersed with the designation of four Indo-Pacific countries as EU Strategic Partners (Japan, Korea, China, India). This conference invites papers that explore these innovations and changing priorities embracing interdisciplinary perspectives – International Relations, Political Science, Law, Economics and History.

Here is the Conference Site

The 43rd Annual Conference Programme

November 5-6, 2022, Tokyo Keizai University

Plenary Session: The Future of Europe and Civil Society

Plenary Session I 13:30-15:20 (Japanese Session): Presentation 30 min, Discussion 20 min

Plenary Session II 16:00-18:00 (English Session): Presentation 30 min, Discussion 20 min

Session open to the public (Japanese Session)

Symposium: EU and Gender

The Future of Europe and Civil Society

Covid-19 has a huge impact in the world. It has affected the EU and its Member States. The internal market at the core of the EU was also affected. Some countries reintroduced pre-Schengen border controls. The free movement of goods and persons was restricted at the beginning of the pandemic. Different measures were taken at national and EU level. While the Member States have taken their own measures to fight Covid-19, such as lockdowns, the EU has taken measures for example regarding approval and centralised of vaccines. The EU adopted the “NextGenerationEU” measure as recovery fund in order to recover from the covid-19 crisis. 

Currently, Europe, in particular countries Germany and France, is facing the time of transition. For example, in Germany the election took place in September 2021 and as a result so called “the traffic light coalition” was born after the CDU/CSU lost the vote. In France in April 2022 the presidential election will take place. 

 Furthermore, the European Commission launched the Conference on the Future of Europe which “will open a new space for debate with citizens to address Europe’s challenges and priorities”. In addition, climate litigation has occurred against the EU, the Member States and companies in Europe, where NGOs and young people are claimants. 

Covid-19 has provided an impetus for change in the EU. For this reason, EUSA-JP has decided to deal with the Future of Europe and Civil Society in the 2022 conference.        

Symposium: EU and Gender

This symposium is open to the public. We will discuss current topics related to gender and sexuality in the European Union. The panelists will be lawyers, political scientists, and economists. Gender equality and the rights of LGBTQ+ people have been discussed widely both in Japan and the EU. For example, the Sapporo regional court held that the non-acceptance of same sex marriage is incompatible with the Japanese Constitution. There is no specific measure regarding same sex marriage at EU level, but non-discrimination is one of the most important principles in the EU. However, in some EU countries, the rights of the LGBTQ+ community have not been accepted. In Hungary, a law was enacted which bans advertisements targeting minors from featuring LGBTQ+ people. The President of the European Commission and European leaders have criticised Hungary regarding this law. This is just one example of how the respect for diversity as an EU value is being shaken. The symposium will be an opportunity to discuss how to achieve gender equality in the EU.