Max Kohnstamm, Honorary President of EPC and one of it’s founding fathers, died peacefully on 20 October, aged 96, survived by his wife Kathleen and five children. Max was the last survivor of the nine EU Founding Fathers, and his death marks the end of an era. He believed deeply in vision, method and action, [...]

The following interview with the Global Times took place on 15 0ctober, bit was not published: 1. Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo this year. What’s your comment on the decision of Nobel committee? Can the award be interpreted as the pressure of the Western countries on China to accelerate its [...]

Personal note I never blog about myself but Blogactiv have asked me to make an exception this time and tell an anecdote.  I received an unexpected letter from the French Minister for Europe in 200? announcing that I had been awarded by President Chirac the Ordre Nationale du Mérite for “services to Europe”.  Some weeks [...]

Three years on: state of EU-China relations When I posted my first blog exactly three years ago on 11 October 2007, not for one moment did I anticipate 500.  But I confess that I enjoy it – I hope a pleasure I share with you.  Watching the US, in particular during the Obama election, it [...]

The following article appeared in Global Times  on 29 September: It now looks unlikely that the current Sino-Japanese dispute will be resolved next week in Brussels on the sidelines of the ASEM Asia-Europe Summit, when Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will both be there.  Whatever the true facts of the collision [...]

“Politicians come and go but culture lives on” said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, when opening the “EU-China High Level Cultural Forum”, which was held in Brussels on 6-7 October.  The successful development of EU-China relations needs increased mutual understanding.  A first step towards mutual understanding is cultural engagement (culture in its broadest sense).  Within this [...]

Wen Jiabao and Nato Kan, the prime ministers of China and Japan, discussed, in the wings of the ASEM Summit in Brussels, the tensions following the 7 September maritime incident near the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands.  They will have further opportunities to talk when they meet later this month in Hanoi for the East Asia Summit, [...]

Whether or not Iran is going to build nuclear weapons remains uncertain, as does the time-span in which it could be achieved.  This is still some years away as Israel has only recently confirmed.  A breakdown in the current attempt at Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations could lead to conflagration: anything other than a two state solution [...]