Herr Dr. Erhard Busek, the former Vice Chancellor of Austria was invited to give a talk on the “Current Situation of European Union” at TKU on the 21st of November During this visit, he met with Dr. Clement Chang, the Founder and Dr. Flora Chang, the President of TKU, and was also shown to the newly established European Documentation Center in the Chueh Sheng Library, which is the first of its kind in terms of the extensive collections on European official documentations and publications.

He appreciated the dedication TKU put in in setting up this Center, as Taiwan is relatively far from Europe. Through such an effort, he could see the vision TKU projects itself on the world stage. This vision later became clearer to him as Dr. Clement Change explained to him TKU’s philosophy, current and future plans.

At his talk on the current situation of EU, he enlightened the audiences with his insight into the disappointed results of the referendum on the European Constitution, EU enlargement, EU security and budget issues. Afterwards, Dr. Tzou, Chong-ko the Director of TKU Graduate Institute of European Studies, who moderated the talk, added that TKU should strike closer academic cooperation and exchange with Europe, and in particularly, Central Europe through the Institute for the Danube & Central Europe (IDM), which is headed by Dr. Busek currently.

This view was shared by many students who attended the talk. Hong Han-kou, a grad student from the European Studies, for example, considered Dr. Busek’s presentation on Central Europe an eye-opening experience, which has led him to a greater understanding of the region. (~ Ying-hsueh Hu )