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. 

Programme

• Day1 November 6, 2021:

  • Plenary 1:   Recovery Strategy for Europe after Covid-19: The Potential of the European Green Deal

• Day2 November 7, 2021

  • Session A:   EU’s Free Movement Issues

  • Session B:   EU’s Business Environment

  • Session C:   The Current EU Politics

  • Plenary 2:   EU Global Strategy in the post-Brexit Era: the Restructuring of External Relations and the Vulnerability of Internal Relations