On the afternoon of June 8th, the international symposium on the “Germany’s General Election and the Trends of Germany’s Foreign Policy”, jointly sponsored by Shanghai Institute for European Studies (SIES) and the European Studies Center of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, was held in the conference hall of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. In order to establish a profound understanding on the situation of the approaching general election in Germany and make an accurate analysis on the trends of Germany’s foreign policy, the sponsors of this symposium particularly invited several distinguished guests from Germany to participate in this symposium. They are: Mr. Gerhard Sabathil, Former Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Korea and Former Director for East Asia and the Pacific in the European External Action Service (EEAS), Mr. Philipp Heissner, Member of the Youth Union of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), Member and Representative of Youth of the Hamburg State Parliament of Germany, and Mr. Fridrich Kurz, Senior Consultant of the German consultancy firm WMP Eurocom Co. Ltd. SIES’ senior advisor MEI Zhaorong, former Chinese ambassador to Germany, also took part in this symposium.
On the opening ceremony, addresses were made by Mr. WANG Zhen, deputy president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Ambassador MEI Zhaorong, and Prof. XU Mingqi, president of SIES and director of the European Studies Center for the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. After the opening addresses, keynote speeches and presentations were made in sequence by Mr. Philipp Heissner, Mr. Gerhard Sabathil, Mr. Fridrich Kurz, Prof. JIAN Junbo from the Fudan University, Prof. ZHENG Chunrong from the Tongji University, Prof. LIU Lirong from the Fudan University, and Prof. DAI Qixiu and Prof. XIN Hua from the Shanghai International Studies University. They presented their opinions and exchanged their ideas on the current situation of the approaching general election in Germany, the campaign strategies of Germany’s two major political parties, the characteristics of Merkel’s administration, and the impact brought by this general election on the European political ecology. Their presentations and speeches were commented by Mr. JIANG Feng, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party’s committee in the Shanghai International Studies University, and Prof. DING Chun of the Fudan University. This symposium was also participated in by over 40 experts and scholars from various universities and academic institutions of Shanghai, who made enthusiastic discussions and ardent exchanges on the topics related to the keynote presentations and speeches. The sessions of this symposium were presided by Prof. FENG Shaolei from the East China Normal University, who is also deputy president of the SIES, and Prof. WU Yikang, who is a researcher of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and former president of the SIES. (The details of this symposium can be found in this issue of European Survey.)
