October 23, 2010
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,… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
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… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
October 11, 2010
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… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
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… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
October 9, 2010
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… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
October 7, 2010
“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… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
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,… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
October 6, 2010
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… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
September 27, 2010
It is a poor reflection on the EU’s China activities if the latest available organigrarmme is nearly five years old and there is no agreement as to how many Dialogues, Working Groups (WG) etc there are. It indicates a serious lack of coordination. The structure of EU-China relations according to the Commission in December 2005… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
September 23, 2010
Despite the changed circumstances, the debate over the effectiveness of the ‘Community method’ as compared with ‘intergovernmentalism’, rages on. Those who regard themselves as ‘true believers’ see the Community method as the Holy Grail. There is a belief that the Community method equates to Jean Monnet’s methodology. The European Council is anathema to them as… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
Rated 6th most influential EU blog by Waggener Edstrom. European of British nationality, for nearly 30 years Bruxellois. Deep believer in the principle of 'mutuality' and Monnet's axiom "Thought cannot be divorced from action", equivalent to Wang Yangming
