The European Institute for Asian Studies - Closing the information gap between EU and Asia

Established in 1989, the Brussels-based European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) serves as a communication link between Asian countries and the European Union Parliament. The non-profit organization is one of eight members of a European Alliance of Asian Studies.

"The driving force of the alliance is the International Institute for Asian Studies based in the Netherlands," says EIAS Staff Representative John Quiglay.

The idea for establishing the EIAS came from the institute's current Secretary General Dick Gupwell, who worked for the European Parliament at the time.

"Gupwell identified a gap in the information available to the members of the parliament regarding EU-Asia relations, so he established the organization along with a group of friends and colleagues with the objective of providing research to members of the parliament and civil servants in the European Commission. The institute also provides them with the facilities for holding meetings with Asians coming to Brussels," Quiglay explains.

According to Quiglay, the main function of the institute today is to develop work programs related to four types of key issues concerning bilateral relations between the EU and Asia. These topics include political economy, socio-cultural affairs, security relations and regionalism and inter-regionalism.

The main activity at the institute is centered around holding conferences and meetings, and on publishing different types of research papers and other publications, which include a news and analysis magazine called the EurAsia Bulletin.

Promoting EU-Asia relations through dialog

The seminars and publications of the EIAS are mainly intended for a specific audience comprised of EU civil servants, academic researchers, business people and diplomats. Most of the articles are written by in-house writers or experts from different fields.

"One of our strengths in publications is that we offer very comprehensive coverage of the activities of the EU institutions with regard to Asia. The main topics include trade, political relations, development cooperation and security relations."

Quiglay says that the institute strives to maintain an unbiased stance towards matters concerning EU-Asia relations, although the emphasis may slightly be on the successes of the EU. In addition to the papers produced by the institute's own staff, it seeks out experts on current topics and publishes their work, but also accepts papers from outsiders who present their articles to the institute.

"Currently the EIAS has a two-year contract with the Embassy of the People's Republic of China to provide them with research studies based around the October 2006 European Commission policy paper on EU-China relations. We are also looking to organize a conference focusing on the possible content of the forthcoming partnership and cooperation agreement we signed between the EU and China," Quiglay says.

One of the main functions of the EIAS is to offer networking opportunities for different types of working groups focusing on EU-Asia relations to meet and exchange ideas about their fields of expertise.

Some while back, the institute organized a conference attended by former Belgian Minister of Defense and President of Wallonia, Guy Spitaels. The event served as a forum to debate and reflect on the minister's book Chine, la fin de l'hégémonie américaine, China: The End of American Hegemony.

As a non-profit organization, the institute relies on revenues from membership fees. Given the constraints of its size and limited resources, the institute does not actively promote its activities with the aim of attracting members, instead, those who are interested in the type of work it is involved in normally find it through their own efforts.

EU and China

On the topic of EU-China relations, Quiglay says that they are developing well, although the view of the Chinese on the matter may differ.

"Europe has specific concerns about the content of the relationship, in terms of European issues which are not being addressed sufficiently strongly in China. These include human rights, the extension of the rule of law and of the appropriate levels of governance in China, as well as the nature of the EU-China trade relationship... It is hard to see what action China is taking to reduce the size of the trade deficit with the EU."

Upon entering the World Trade Organization, China committed itself to complying with the standards of the organization. "It has made serious efforts in some sectors to meet them, but in some sectors such as agriculture or sanitation, standards are still lacking, which irritates Brussels. Still, China is a strategic partner of the EU and on the whole, if China continues on its reform path and to actively participate and strengthen the multilateral institution's ideas, it will continue to receive the good will of the EU, and the relationship will continue to develop on a mutual and beneficial basis."

For more information about the activities of the EIAS, please visit http://www.eias.org/.