This seminar is now available as MP3 (please listen to the file below in three parts - first part starts at 0:27):

You are warmly invited to attend a Q & A session followed by a light lunch with H.E. David Daly, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Australia and New Zealand, and members of the ANU’s Centre for European Studies. This is your chance to find out more about the European Union and its relevance to Australia and Australians. Students and teachers are particularly welcome. Come and discover the exciting world of European Studies!

 

The first move towards the creation of what is now known as the European Union occurred on the 9th of May 1950. In Paris that day, against the background of the threat of a Third World War engulfing the whole of Europe, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman read to the international press a declaration calling France, Germany and other European countries to pool together their coal and steel production as "the first concrete foundation of a European federation". What he proposed was the creation of a supranational European Institution, charged with the management of the coal and steel industry, the very sector which was, at that time, the basis of all military power. The countries which he called upon had almost destroyed each other in a dreadful conflict which had left after it a sense of material and moral desolation. Today, every European country which democratically chooses to accede to the European Union endorses its fundamental values of peace and solidarity. These values find expression through economic and social development embracing environmental and regional dimensions which are the guarantees of a decent standard of living for all citizens.

 

To view the flyer for this event please see: Celebrate Europe Day