The European Union at 50:
assessing the past, looking ahead

With the proposed Conference, the University of Macau wishes to associate itself to the 50^th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

The University of Macau and particularly its Faculty of Law have, for more than a decade, been devoting resources and energies to studying, teaching, researching and making widely known the reality of the European integration and its Law. This is an endeavour which makes it stand out in the whole universe of Higher Education institutions of the South-East Asian Region.

The proposed Conference would thus seem to constitute a "logical" step forward in this process of devoting attention and studies to the European Union and its Law. The initiative may seem the more opportune as this coincides with the commemoration of half a century of existence of the European Community/ Union and, in the second semester of 2007, with the Presidency of the Union by Portugal; Portugal to which Macau was historically attached and with which Macau in the present maintains close relationships.

Furthermore, the staging of this Conference in Macau, by the end of 2007, represents for the University an opportunity to make more widely known to the Macau society and the world its own scholarship in the subject. This has been boosted in 2003 by launching Master's and postgraduate programs specifically devoted to European Union Law. These programs have, since then, attained a critical mass and dimension, which now permits the University to envisage the participation in scholarly discussions of the highest level on the topic.

Moreover, this would equally constitute an occasion for this nucleus of researchers and Professors to reinforce the links with other most reputed Colleagues; create or cement interactions and synergies; stimulate Students who undertook to study this reality and research on the European Union; accredit the prospect/ plan of soon opening up a PhD program dedicated to European Union Law.

The Conference would certainly also provide an occasion for a discussion of the highest quality on the European Union, which would enhance the profile and visibility of the European Union in the region and make it better known to a population which already regards the Union with profound respect and high esteem.

Finally there is also the intention to collect the papers contributed in a publication dedicated to the Conference's proceedings. This would later constitute another valuable instrument capable of inducing better knowledge and enhanced interest of the Union.