Event Description

For over a year and a half, the world has been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. While measures to manage the outbreak have ranged from strict lockdowns and closed borders up to the use of big data and artificial intelligence, on the whole, both North and South East Asia have fared generally better than Europe in terms of the number of cases, hospitalizations and fatalities. Yet now in the second phase when various vaccines have become available, many parts of Asia have been lagging behind Europe in their inoculation rates while new variants threaten to invade the countries where SARS-CoV-2 has virtually been non-existent.

How can we explain the stark differences between both regions, Europe and Asia, and what mutual lessons can we learn from one another? What can Europe do to help vaccinate the world, including developing countries and those with restricted humanitarian access? What is the role for organizations, such as the European Commission and COVAX, and what measures can be adopted so that any future pandemic is prevented and its impact mitigated?

Two panels of distinguished political scientists, economists, health experts and practitioners will debate mutual experiences in fighting COVID-19 from the European and Asian perspectives.

Program:

Welcome: 10:15 - 10:30 am (CEST)

Panel I: 10:30 am - 12:00 pm (CEST): "From COVID-19 to COVAX: The European and Asian Views"

The panel will compare the lessons from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Cambodia and Europe.

Speakers

Dr Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Postdoctoral Fellow, NextGen Taiwan

Prof Dr Stefan Auer, Associate Professor in European Studies, The University of Hong Kong

Dr Chiew-Ping Hoo, Senior Lecturer, National University of Malaysia

Anselm Kanwischer, Project Manager Battambang-Cambodia, forumZFD

Dr Americo Beviglia Zampetti, Adviser, DG Health and Food Safety, European Commission

Panel II: 1:30 - 3:00 pm (CEST): "From COVID-19 to COVAX: The Korean Peninsula (and Singapore)"

The panel will examine the pandemic situation and its aftermath in South/North Korea and Singapore.

Speakers

Dr Erwin Tan, Associate Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Dr June Park, Fung Global Fellow, Princeton University

Dr Kee B. Park, Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Juan Blick-Paris, Desk officer, DG for International Partnerships, European Commission

The event will be chaired by Dr Tereza Novotná (Korea Foundation & Korea Europe Center Fellow, IKS & Center for European Integration, Freie Universität Berlin).