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北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
EU's Ambassador to China Klaus
Ebermann Lectured at PKU
By Ma Chao
PKU NEWS 2004—02—19
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=77584779
Peking University, Beijing, Feb.19th, 2004: Dr. Klaus Ebermann, the European
Union's Ambassador to China visited Peking University on invitation and gave a
speech named ― Europe Union in 2004: Enlargement of EU and Development of
EU-sino Relation‖ this afternoon.
Klaus Ebermann is the head of the delegation of the European Commission (EC) to
China, which is the executive arm of the European Union (EU). He comes from
Germany and masters English, French and Spanish besides German.
He began his lecture with the brief introduction of the history of EU. After the second
World War, A number of European leaders came to the conclusion that the only way
to secure a lasting peace between their countries was to unite them economically
and politically. So, in 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed
integrating the coal and steel industries of Western Europe. As a result, in 1951, the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up, with six members:
Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, France, Italy and the Netherlands. In 1957
they signed the Treaties of Rome, creating the European Atomic Energy Community
(EURATOM) and the European Economic Community (EEC). In 1967, the
institutions of the three European communities merged. In 1992 the Maastricht
Treaty created the European Union (EU).
The EU has grown in size gradually. Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom
joined in 1973, followed by Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986 and Austria,
Finland and Sweden in 1995. The European Union is now preparing to welcome a
further ten countries from eastern and southern Europe: Cyprus, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
These countries are set to join the EU in May.1, 2004. Dr. Klaus Ebermann took a
positive view on the future development of EU. He pointed out that the enlargement
of EU did bring about some problems, but they had been overcome with joint efforts.
Klaus Ebermann also talked about the relation of EU and China and its development.
The students enjoyed the question-answer part after his lecture. Klaus Ebermann
explained the questions related to EU relieving of arms embargo to China, the EU
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