EU ambassador to speak June 1

Guenter Burghardt, the European Union’s Ambassador to the U.S., will speak Friday, June 1, at 12:30 p.m. at the European Community Studies Association conference at the Monona Terrace Convention Center.

Burghardt will speak on “A New Europe and a New Administration: A New Partnership?”

The conference, May 31-June 2, features more than 80 panels and roundtables and will be attended by hundreds of people, including leading scholars from across the U.S. and around the world.

The conference, held once every two years, is one of the most important forums of its kind on European Union society, economics and politics. Sessions will examine such issues as US-EU relations, building a common defense policy, EU enlargement, European monetary union, free trade agreements and domestic politics, Europeanization and globalization of economic interests, environmental concerns, farming and food policy, drug regulations, immigration, multiculturalism, even the politics of soccer.

The ECSA, founded in 1988 and located in Pittsburgh, Penn., is the major scholarly and professional association for all those following EU affairs. The ECSA Conference is being hosted locally by the European Union Center at the International Institute of UW–Madison. Burghardt has held a wide variety of posts. Before being named ambassador last year, Burghardt was the EU’s director general for external relations. From 1988-93 he held the post of political director in the Secretariat General of the Commission, the EU’s policy engine responsible for administration – under the direct authority of then-Commission President Jacques Delors.

Burghardt holds degrees in law, economy and political science from the Hamburg, Strasbourg and Paris universities and a Ph.D. in law from the University of Hamburg. He was assistant professor of public and EC law at the University of Hamburg from 1966-70.

The EU and the U.S. together account for more than 30 percent of world trade and represent almost 60 percent of the industrialized world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The conference is open to the public but registration is required. Fees: $65 for ECSA member students, $85 for non-member students; $110 for ECSA members, $145 for non-members. Friday luncheon and keynote address alone, $20.