I think I've been invited here to speak on behalf of the Community because UK currently enjoys the privilege of holding the presidency of the Community. But in fact, I would like to speak, if I may, in a slightly personal capacity. The reason for that was if I had asked for a draft speech from Brussels or from London on the subject this afternoon, I think I would have got something so bland and uncontroversial, and I think it would put everyone to sleep. So, I'd like to speak personally...

Jean Monnet, a French politician and one of the founding fathers of the European Community together with Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer wrote in 1944, at the peak of the Second World War: 'There will be no peace in Europe when the states form themselves anew only on the basis of national sovereignty and as a result of that, on the basis of a prestige policy and economic protectionism.' And he added: 'Europe must be unified not only through cooperation but also th...

Nation, nation-state, region, world IT is obvious that the end of the Cold War era is causing major global realignments amongst various nations, nation-states and regions, and that there is a fluidity to our present historical moment which is as exhilarating as it is bewildering. Indeed, we can now bracket the post-World War II era, and analyse it from the perspective of an end (1991) as well as a beginning (1945). I would like, in this presentation, to introduce and elaborate what I fe...

I would like to explain the current status of the CEPT Scheme emanating from the 24th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting in Manila. You may recall that before the Manila meet, there were a lot of sceptical remarks about the implementation of the CEPT Scheme simply because one member country had serious difficulty due to its internal politics. In fact, even on the eve of the AEM, that member country came without a firm position, so much so that we have to defer discussion on the CEPT to t...