On November 3rd and 4th 2014, the Fourth “Cross-Strait Forum of European Studies” was held in Shanghai, under the joint sponsorship of the Shanghai Institute for European Studies, the European Studies Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the Center for European Studies of the Fudan University, and the Chinese Association for EU Studies. This forum was focused on the topic of “new situations, new mechanisms, and new Europe”, with special discussion sessions over the five major issues of “debt crisis and the innovations of EU mechanisms”, “the changes and challenges of EU’s internal relations”, “adjustments on EU’s foreign policy and foreign relations” “challenges to EU’s economy and its structural transformation”, and “EU’s adjustments on its security, social, and cultural policies”. In-depth discussions were made over the new opportunities and new challenges that might face EU against the backgrounds of EU’s power transfers of its major three institutions, its weak economic growth, and its unprecedented risks of deflations. Over 50 experts and scholars from more than 30 universities and academic institutions in Taiwan and Mainland China gathered on this forum and made extensive discussions and exchanges over a variety of issues and fields of European studies. On the side of Mainland China, scholars from major universities and academic institutions outside Shanghai also participated into this forum actively, such as those from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese Institute of International Studies, the Chinese Institute of Modern International Relations, the Tsinghua University, the People’s University of China, the Sichuan University, the Wuhan University, the Hebei University, the Shandong University, and the Jilin University. The Taiwanese scholars participating into this forum were from those Taiwanese universities and academic institutions that belong to the Taiwan Union of European Studies Centers.
