This two day international conference aims to identify the main political and economic factors as well as structural forces that drive regional, inter-regional and trans-regional cooperation as well as integration within and between Europe and Asia. Ongoing changes and challenges to Europe´s relations with Asia will be in the focus of the conference that takes place at RUB from 8 – 9 April. In five panels academics, policy makers, think tankers and practitioners will address key issues in current EU-Asia relations. The underlying assumption of the conference is that a „Eurasian Space“ is developing in the external relations of the EU with Asia. Since China started to promote its project of the New Silk Road in 2013 the impact of this „Belt and Road Initiative“ is increasingly felt in Europe, Africa and around the world. The conference will tackle the following questions: Given the current state of play, do Euro-Asian affairs hold more potential for convergence or divergence? Do Europeans, and Asians, need to develop a new understanding of EU-Asia relations that transcends the traditional bilateral or multilateral approach by including Eurasian geo-political and geo-economic factors? What are the implications of these new structural developments for Germany, EU foreign policy making and EU-Asia relations? Prof. Dr. Bates Gill, Macquarie University, Sydney and Chatham House, London, will deliver a lecture on the first conference day from 09:45-10:45. Prof. Gill will speak on „The EU and Asia in a Changing Global Environment“ and provide the intellectual stimulus for the following international Jean Monnet Conference. This inaugural lecture is part of the Bochum Jean Monnet Lecture Series.

Panel 1: The EU’s Approach to Eurasian ConnectivityChair: PROF.DR.SEBASTIANBERSICK(RUB)
Presenter 1: REINHARD BÜTIKOFER, Member of the European Parliament, Brussels
Presenter 2: FRIEDOLIN STRACK, Managing Director and Coordinatorof the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA), Berlin
Presenter 3: PROF. DR. FRANÇOISENICOLAS,Senior Research Fellow and Director, Center for Asian Studies, Ifri, Paris