EUIJ WASEDA

Speaker	Mr. Hubert Védrine, Former Foreign Minister of France
Moderator	Associate Professor Sadaharu Kataoka (School of International Liberal Studies)
Date	15 May 2009
Time	13:00-18:00 (13:00-14:30 for the lecture)
Venue	Ono Auditorium, Waseda Univ.
Language	French (Simultaneous Translation)
Note	Also featuring introductory remarks by Ambassador Hugh Richardson, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Japan. This lecture is a part of 2009 EU-Japan Friendship Week Symposium at Waseda University

1. Introduction

After a brief introduction to the event was given by Prof Kataoka, Prof Fukuda made opening remarks. Prof Fukuda said that he was very interested to hear Mr Védrine's speech at the EU-Japan Friendship Week Symposium where partnership between Japan and the EU as actors was encouraged in order to address pressing global issues. Ambassador Richardson's introductory remarks followed, during which he observed that it is important to hear discussion of the idea of 'the EU as an international actor' from Mr Védrine's pragmatic and rational point of view, to explore the construction of EU in a flexible manner.

2. Mr Védrine's Keynote Lecture

Mr. Védrine's speech consisted of three main arguments. The first argument was that there was no consensus on the idea of 'the EU as an international actor' in Europe. The second concerned the significance of the EU becoming an international actor, and the third argument was that the EU was becoming an international actor under current global conditions.

(1) Is the EU perceived as an international actor?

Mr. Védrine gave his opinion that there had been no concept of an 'international actor' in the age of the ECSC, which was an initial ancestor of the EU. Some states in Europe started forming a community because each state believed that it was the best way to create security against the threat of USSR in the Cold War era. Nevertheless, in recent years the idea of 'the EU as an international actor' emerged in certain policy areas. For example, 'a single voice' of the EU developed and functioned through economic policy, but not through defence or foreign policy. In Mr. Védrine's view, there was also no consensus on the degree to which each state transferred its sovereignty to the EU. Furthermore he did not think that the EU had become an international actor as a transnational actor. As De Gaulle said, Mr. Védrine argued that we should not forget that the EU was 'a union of sovereign states' and would remain so. There was no 'United States of Europe' equivalent to 'the United States of America'.

(2) The importance for the EU to become an international actor

First, Mr. Védrine argued that the EU as an international actor was important because it could secure the interests of EU citizens. EU citizens who generally hoped to maintain the diversity of their identities did not believe that the EU tried to work for their interests, but believed instead that it tried to destroy their identities. The European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council should listen to the voices of EU citizens, coordinate the opinions of member states from a more realistic point of view and make laws or treaties, he suggested. Second, in Mr. Védrine's view it was important that the EU could provide a practical model to keep an international order in the world where the tragedy of war had been repeated.

(3) The EU is becoming an international actor

Mr. Védrine expressed his belief that in recent years the world order has been dramatically transformed from US hegemonic order or 'unipolar order' to 'a multipolar' order. A 'multipolar' order was understood by him to consist of Russia, China, Japan, India and Europe, in addition to the US. This political situation was symbolically reflected in the transfer of the US Presidency from Bush to Obama. Consequently, Mr. Vedrine believed that the EU was not only becoming but also should and could become an international actor for world peace, by means of reflecting the different views of member states and shaping 'a single voice'. He concluded the lecture by stating that this challenge could be shared by Japan, and hoping that the EU and Japan would actively promote dialogue and take joint action on global issues.

(4) Q&A session

When Mr. Védrine was asked whether the EU was an international 'soft power', he answered that he did not think the world order was only based on 'soft power'. He was then asked a question regarding the limits of EU enlargement. He believed that the EU could expand to incorporate remaining Nordic countries such as Iceland and Norway and possibly former Yugoslavian countries. But the potential membership of Turkey, in Védrine's view, was a difficult problem which has been left unresolved in more than 50 years of EU integration. Partnership with Russia, by contrast, could be built rather easily and soon. Finally, Prof Kataoka closed the Q&A session by thanking Mr Védrine and Ambassador Richardson.