The conference, which focused on reassessing the relationship between the European Union and the Asia-Pacific region in the context of the ongoing economic crisis, took place on Friday and Saturday, 17-18 May 2013, at the University of Macau’s (UM) Ho Yin Convention Centre. The conference is held every year in a different member country of the Asia-Pacific Association for EU Studies (EUSA-AP).

A total of 150 people from 22 different countries took part in the event. The attendees included the respective presidents of the associations from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Only the Indian president was absent.

During his talk, Banús explained that the European Union was born in a climate of confidence, which has been lost as a result of the economic crisis and which needs to be recovered. “There is a global crisis of confidence: confidence in politicians, whom many feel are incapable of finding a solution; confidence in experts; and confidence in banks, which have taken on the appearance of exploiters of the common people”, he said.

The ECSA president proposed that we return to the origins of European integration, which was a genuine example of overcoming the worst in order to find creative ways of meeting the requirements of the people. “It’s not a model, but rather an example of good practice, a paradigm shift, a reason to believe that human beings are capable of overcoming history and outdated attitudes and stereotypes”, he concluded.