National Centre for Research on Europe

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National Centre for Research on Europe

• Otago University Presentation
• 7 September, 2004

• Background and Activities
• Student Support Opportunities
• Future Directions

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• Objectives to
• Promote multi-disciplinary research on the EU
  that brings together practitioners, graduates,
  post-doctoral fellows and academics
• Develop a new generation of NZ graduates with EU
  expertise
• Engage in policy-driven research, melding
  academic work with practical requirements
• Perform a wider societal role and serve as an
  element in the EUs outreach within New Zealand
  and the Pacific
• Raise critical awareness of the EU, informing
  government, the media and public opinion

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• Origins
• Established in 2000 as UC Centre for Research on
  Europe
• Became National Centre for Research on Europe in
  2003
• Governance
• Advisory Board
• Internal
• External (MFAT, EU Commission, EU Presidency, 4
  NZ Universities)
• Business Advisory Group (Fonterra, Meat, Seafood,
  IT Industries)

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• Funding
• 1. Core
• EU - Commission establishment grant 2003-5
  (238,000)
• EU - Jean Monnet Chair/ modules 2002-4 (27,000)
• EU - Jean Monnet Centre of Excelence 2005-7
  (30,000)
• UC - VCs new initiative fund 2000-2 (NZ150,000)
• Total Core grant income since 2000 EU 295,000
• UC 150,000
• 2. Research projects
• EU - 2004-5 EU Asia Pacific Identity research
  grant (144,000)
• EU - 2002 EU Pacific Trade Workshop Grant
  (30,000)
• EU - 2002 EU NZ Public Opinion Survey grant
  (25,000)
• UC - 2004-6 UC Post-doc ( 100,000 - EU
  enlargement and NZ Dr Gibbons)
• UC - 2003-5 UC Post-doc (100,000 - EU-Pacific
  relations Dr. Koloamatangi)
• UC - 2002-4 UC Post-doc (100,000 - EU
  Perceptions in NZ Dr. Chaban)

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• Activities
• Europa Lecture series
• 2001 Terry Wynn, MEP
• 2002 Helen Clark, PM
• 2003 Chris Patten, Commissioner
• 2004 Margaret Beckett, UK Minister
• Visiting Fellows 2004
• Fraser Cameron European Policy Centre, Brussels
• Jörg Drews, Bielfeld
• Reinhardt Rummel Stiftung Wissenshaft une
  Politik, Berlin
• Martin Sajdik, Austrian Ministry of Foreign
  Affairs, Vienna
• Heribert Weiland, Development Studies Institute,
  Freiburg
• Mark Pittaway, Open University
• Stephen Dearden, Manchester Metropolitan
  University
• Allan Williams, Exeter University

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• Activities
• Weekly Roundtable Seminars
• Visiting Fellows
• NCRE Staff
• NCRE Thesis Students
• Visiting Ambassadors
• Conferences
• Technologies, Publics and Power, Akaroa, February
  1-5 2004
• Outside Looking In multidisciplinary
  perspectives on the EU from the Asia-Pacific
  region, Christchurch Arts Centre, 9-11 September
  2004

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• Upcoming Conference Outside Looking In
• Including
• Keynote Speech by Garret FitzGerald, former Irish
  Prime Minister
• EU Diplomatic Roundtable State of the EU
  reflections on 2004
• Twenty six papers scheduled to be delivered
• Sample papers include
• Kenneth Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University. There
  Is No Alternative? Central and Eastern Europe in
  the 2004 European Parliament Elections
• Rajendra Jain, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
  India. India and an Enlarging European Union
• Apirat Petchsiri, Chulalongkorn University,
  Thailand. Legal Based Regional Integration
• Jikang Zhang, Fudan University, China. The Recent
  Economic Impacts on Chinese Economy of EMU and
  EU's Enlargement
• Katherine Vadura, University of South Australia.
  The European Union, enlargement and integrating
  security and human rights

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• Student Support
• Scholarships - 60,000 for fees and research
  grants in 2004
• MA and PhD support
• Designated EU Research Topics
• National Post-Graduate Scholarships and Awards
• NCRE Research Awards
• Honours support
• European Studies Honours
• Degree

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• Designated EU Research Topics
• The development of an EU Foreign Service
• EU Common Foreign Policy
• EU-Pacific relations
• EU-NZ relations
• EU-NZ migration
• The next wave of EU enlargement
• The EU constitutional reform
• EU economic and financial policies
• EU humanitarian issues
• EU public opinion
• NZ media, public opinion and EU identity

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• Student Support
• Internships two 3-month internships in the
  European Parliament awarded annually
• one open to any student enrolled at a tertiary
• institution in New Zealand other than the
• University of Canterbury
• one open to any student enrolled at the
• University of Canterbury
• This programme forms part of the National
• Centre for Research on Europes wider
• objective to increase New Zealanders
• awareness and understanding of the
• European Union. The internships are
• designed to provide post-graduates with
• an opportunity to experience working for
• an MEP as well as to assist their own research.

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• Student Support
• European Exchanges
• NCRE teaches the only Honours degree in European
  Studies available in NZ
• NCRE supervises Masters and PhD degrees in
  European/ EU Studies
• Graduate EU research training workshops
• Graduate conferences

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• Summer School Courses
• EURO 220 European Union Negotiations Actors,
  Processes, I nstitutions
• EURO 221 The European Union and the Wider World
  Patterns and Policies
• EURO 222 The Rise and Fall of Soviet Domination
  in Eastern Europe 1944-1991
• EURO 223 Remaking the New Europe
• EURO 224 Economic Development of
• Europe

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• Current Graduate theses supervised
• Some examples
• MA
• Steve Thomas "A Regionally Integrated Pacific
  Evaluating Regionalism in the Pacific under the
  Post-Cotonou Agreement Process"
• Tamsin Rouse The Challenge of Babel Languages
  and the European Project
• Richard Thornton Small State Theory and New
  Zealands Relationship with the European Union
• Rosie Tipples Half a World Away contemporary
  European migration to New Zealand
• Jessica Bain Images of Europe Representations
  of the EU in New Zealand Television News
• Abel Reyna-Rivera EU Enlargement and its
  economic implications for new members
• Lucy Cassels An Evolving International Presence
  Europe as a Pacific Development Actor
• Jeanine Begg An Analysis of the Nature of
  Relations Between the European union and Japan

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• Current Graduate theses supervised
• Some examples
• PhD
• Mat Doidge The European Union and the
  Association of Southeast Asian Nations Inter-
  and Transregional Relations in a Globalising
  World
• Frendehl Nabong "Asylum and border control in the
  EU
• Palm Pratoomtip The effects of the EU
  enlargement on the EU and Thai political and
  economic relations
• Pete Mayell Reading Between the Li(n)es A
  Critical Geopolitics of 9/11 and the War on
  Terrorism

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• Current Major Research Projects
• EU Identity in New Zealand
• Dr. Natalia Chaban (2002-4)
• EU-Pacific Policy
• Dr. Malakai Koloamatangi (2003-5)
• EU Enlargement and New Zealand
• Dr. Matthew Gibbons/Dr. Milenko Petrovic (2004 -
  )
• EU Financial Reporting New Zealand
• Alan Roberts (2003 - )
• EU Identity in the Asia-Pacific Region
• Dr. Natalia Chaban (2004 -6)
• EU Knowledge Wave Migration to NZ
• Prof. Allan Williams (2005 - )
• Project details www.europe.canterbury.ac.nz

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• The Wider Role of the NCRE
• Links to NZ Brussels Mission and MFAT
• EU and Outreach
• Media commentary
• Possible development of a formal calendar for
  NCRE- Select Committee meetings and facilitate
  NCRE visiting Fellows to brief the committee

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• University Charter and Interim Profile 2004-6
• The special character of the UC is reflected
  in.The specialist focus of many of our research
  centres, particularly the National Centre for
  Research on Europe (Section 2, page 5).
• European Commission 2004 Briefing papers
• Student and staff exchanges under the
  auspices of the NCRE are an important part of the
  academic connections between NZ and the EU. Both
  sides recognise the contribution made by the
  Centre.
• The NCRE despite its relatively modest means
  has managed to implement a wide array of
  activities The Centre has been able to
  establish, nation-wide, a fair reputation as an
  independent and authoritative commentator on EU
  affairs.

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• Future Challenges and opportunities
• New EU grant 2005-8
• Extending the NCRE national network
• Continuing EU-NZ outreach media, Europa
  Lectures, interns
• Defining new research areas
• NZ Business support
• Accessing NZ Government support ( modelled on
  Asia2000 or the Pacific Cooperation Foundation)
  to stimulate the competition of ideas
  vis-à-vis NZ policy towards the EU

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• Public, Elite and Media Perceptions of the EU in
  Asia Pacific Region
• Australia
• New Zealand
• South Korea
• Thailand
• a comparative study

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• Comparative analysis of the news media agenda on
  the EU
• Comparative analysis of the general public agenda
  on the EU
• Comparative analysis of the policy and decision
  makers agenda on the EU
• Comparative analysis of the aggregated results

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• Goal
• to identify, measure and raise public awareness
  and extend knowledge of the European Union within
  four countries of the Asia-Pacific region
  Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Thailand
• Outputs
• access to unique databases of resources
• publications
• broad public outreach

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• Implications for New Zealand of EU enlargement,
  and how NZ should deal with EU enlargement
• The 10 acceding countries will become richer.
  Past experience in Europe shows that this will
  create opportunities for NZ exporters
• The acceding countries can produce goods NZ
  needs, such as railway equipment
• Enlargement has prompted CAP reform. In the
  short-term this will reduce prices for
  agricultural goods in Europe, but will have
  long-term benefits for NZ

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• Recommendations
• New Zealands diplomatic resources in Europe are
  thinly stretched, and may need reinforcing
• Other ties with Europe also need strengthening
  NZ has tended to downplay the importance of
  Europe in recent years
• NZ exporters need to take up available
  opportunities. Trade with the new EU members is
  currently very low
• Project runs April 2004-April 2006. A conference
  for next year is planned, and a book will be
  finished in 2006

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• An evaluation of the political aspects of the
  European Unions Economic Partnership Agreements
  legitimacy, structural capacity and regional
  integration in the Pacific
• Why legitimacy?
• This includes examining standards of good
  governance, democracy, rule of law, protection
  and promotion of human rights, plus other
  elements which make for democratic, inclusive and
  effective government
• This is set against Pacific realities
• One of the key questions here is whether current
  models of democracy-development are relevant to
  the Pacific, and if not, how do we construct
  applicable alternatives?

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• Why structural-institutional capacity?
• Development strategies will only work if there is
  capacity to implement them
• A key question how can local capacities improve
  to the point where they eliminate the need for
  overseas consultants?
• Why regional integration?
• EUs preference
• Already tendency towards greater cooperation in
  PACER, PICTA and Pacific Plan
• Individual nations lack resources, both human and
  physical, for greater economic development

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• Some findings to date
• Democratic systems, systems of rule, need to be
  indigenised
• Almost all nations attempt to accommodate local
  cultural precepts with imported ideas, for
  example, judicial systems
• Almost all nations lack capacity for greater
  development
• Most nations reject greater political integration
• The free trade area idea is still problematic
• EU is generally well perceived
• Outcome
• Conference presentations
• Articles
• Major conference on EU-Pacific relations
• Book-length study at the end
• Practical recommendations to interested parties
  such as EU, Pacific Islands Forum, individual
  countries and organisations

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• Suggestions for a Select Committee Policy Review
  of EU-NZ relations 2005
• Rebalance small/large state perspective in NZs
  relations
• Moving beyond the UK leverage
• Formulate a new political-based relationship to
  complement the post WTO Doha Trade agreements
• Thinking ahead to the next wave of enlargement
  2007-10
• Evaluating EU-NZ foreign policy parallels
• Facilitating EU knowledge wave migration
• Schengen border-control free movement the
  Swiss approach?
• Enhanced exchanges educational, parliamentary,
  bureaucratic
• Invisibility of 1950-2004 EU integration in
  School curriculum
• Improvement in quality of EU reporting in NZ
  media
• Explore a new and inclusive EU-Pacific dialogue
  framework (similar to ASEM, EU-MERCUSOR, etc)
• Extend current EU-NZ development cooperation in
  the Pacific