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Explorers George Cunningham, Grant Redevers and the good ship "Tara"

Arctic Expedition strikes at heart of climate change

Tara Arctic Expedition leader Grant Redevers joined New Zealand's Minister for the Environment and Climate Change  Hon. Dr. Nick Smith and EU Delegation Charge d'Affaires a.i. George Cunningham at the opening of the photographic exhibition "Polar Night" to run 18th August to 17th October at the Museum of Wellington City and Sea. The schooner Tara, which features so prominently in these photos, visited the Arctic as part of the European Union's research programme DAMOCLES to assess the negative impacts of significantly-reduced sea ice cover on the environment and humanity. George Cunningham said: "The Arctic is but one of the many fronts we need to fight on to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Every country – whether big or small – counts. Building an emissions trading scheme which is ultimately tradable across the world is one of our mutual challenges right now. The ultimate test must be the extent of real reductions of emissions which really do mitigate the worst effects of this, the greatest challenge facing us in the 21st century".

Hon Dr Nick Smith's remarks

George Cunningham's remarks

George Cunningham in Dominion Post 18 August 2010

Deputy Director-General Leffler makes a presentation to Pacific Island Leaders attending the PIF Post-Forum Dialogue

The EU's special place amongst Pacific Island Leaders

Deputy Director-General for Development Mr. Christian Leffler led an eleven-strong EU delegation from Brussels and the region to attend the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders meeting in Vanuatu in early August. Mr Leffler's team included the heads of the eight EU missions situated in the Pacific region as well as a representative from the European Investment Bank. The EU spoke at a meeting of the Pacific Leaders of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (P-ACP) group, met together with the Leaders of the Small Island States and made a presentation on EU policy at the Post-Forum Dialogue. There were also many individual meetings held with countries and organisations, including New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully and Deputy Secretary Chris Seed. The EU and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community signed a contribution agreement worth EUR 4.4 million for a legal and fiscal framework for sustainable resource management in the Pacific deep sea mineral sector. The EU, New Zealand and Australia are the three most significant donors in the Pacific.

Professor Martin Holland, Director of the National Centre for Research on Europe, celebrates the acceptance of UC into the European Commission's Erasmus Mundus student exchange programme with NCRE staff and students

UC joins prestigious European exchange programme

The University of Canterbury, through the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE), has become a partner in a prestigious international student exchange programme run by the European Commission.

UC is now lead Australasian partner in a consortium of 10 European and Australasian universities that has been accepted into the commission’s Erasmus Mundus doctoral and post-doctoral mobility programme.

The programme, which has been operating for the past 10 years, aims to promote student exchanges globally between European universities and tertiary institutions in non-European countries to strengthen co-operation between higher education organisations.

With a total budget of 1.5 million euros (NZ$2.65 million), the programme will allow for 99 fully-funded doctoral and postdoctoral exchanges between the 10 participating universities over the next four years. Each exchange will be for a nine month period.

The programme will begin operating at the end of this year with the first exchanges expected to take place in early 2011.

EU Charge d'Affaires a.i. Mr George Cunningham signs convention on behalf of the EU, watched by Mr Gerard Van Bohemen, NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

European Union signs High Seas Fishery Resource Convention 

The signing of the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources of the South Pacific Ocean took place during a regular meeting of senior New Zealand officials and their counterparts from the EU’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Wellington on Monday 26th July.  The Convention will establish the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) to manage non-highly migratory fish species in the region, including deep sea fish stocks.

The EU is the seventh party to sign the SPRFMO Convention, which will close one of the last remaining governance gaps for high-seas fisheries.Both the EU and New Zealand are keen to ensure that fish stocks are sustainably managed, especially through effective regional fisheries management organisations.  

Also discussed at the Wellington meeting were trade issues and the problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. The  biannual dialogue between New Zealand and the EU on fisheries is one of several NZ-EU dialogues held on a regular basis, covering a wide range of political and economic themes of common interest. 

 Murray McCully with Miguel Ángel Moratinos

EU-New Zealand hit it off in Madrid

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, acting for the EU's High Representative, Catherine Ashton, joined his New Zealand colleague, Foreign Minister Murray McCully, in chairing the six monthly EU-New Zealand Political Dialogue at Ministerial level. In a strictly bilateral context, both delegations covered topics regarding the EU's institutional development with special emphasis on external relations and EU enlargement, as well as issues related to the current world economic and financial situation. They worked to move forward the implementation of the EU-New Zealand Joint Declaration, adopted at the Ministerial Meeting in Lisbon in September 2007, the reference framework for EU-New Zealand relations until now. In the regional context, the partners addressed recent developments in the Asian regional architecture as well as the situation in Asia-Pacific—including Afghanistan and its neighbour Pakistan—and in the South Pacific. Finally there was a discussion on the effects of climate change and the measures that are being adopted by both sides to tackle this environmental threat.

Reunion Day Bulgaria

NZGBA Celebration to mark the beginning of the Oktoberfest

Malta's Independence Day