Conference closes the EU Academic Program at UM

Paulo Canelas de Castro

Organized by the European Union Academic Program – Macao (EUAP-M) of the University of Macau (UM), the conference “60 Years after the Treaties of Rome: What is the Future for the European Union?”, held for the last two days at the Faculty of Law of the UM, was the last big event of the EUAP-M program.

The program that now closes was introduced with the hope of contributing to a better knowledge of the EU in the context of Macau and of China and aiming to be a spring-board for the continuation of studies about the EU, the Associate Professor from the Faculty of Law and one of the main organizers of the event, Paulo Canelas de Castro, told the Times.

“These [events] are important as the EU is one of the main actors of the currently globalized world,” Castro said, adding, “the EU is a leader in some fields, such as climate change [approaches] and in other aspects an important strategic partner of the world that [is] dominated by the global agenda [of countries like] the US, Russia and China.”

To address topics on the EU is particularly important in Macau, Castro said, “due to the roots of the law and in terms of its values and juridical culture.”

In terms of outcomes, Castro noted that the program will work as a “tonic for future relations; that’s our hope and our goal.”