L-R: Paolo Salvia (Political Advisor to Head of EU Delegation in Ghana), Ambassador Diana Acconcia (Head of EU-Delegation in Ghana), Prof Ransford Gyampo (CES Director), Dr. Victor Ose-Kwadwo (Maastricht University, Netherlands) and Ambassador Christoph Retzlaff (German Ambassador to Ghana)
The Centre for European Studies (CES) of the College of Humanities, University of Ghana has held its 5th Lecture Series for the year 2018 on the theme: “Probing the Relevance of European Studies in Africa”.
The event took place on Friday, 16th November, 2016, at the Law Faculty Conference Auditorium.
It was attended by over 400 participants including representatives of the European Union delegation, ambassadors, representatives of the European Union member countries in Ghana, students, faculty, policymakers, parliamentarians, clergy, media, and civil society leaders.
Professor Ransford Gyampo, Director of the Centre, said the selection of the theme for the 5th Lecture Series was occasioned by frequent calls by students and their desire to know more about how relevant and beneficial the study of Europe would be to them.
The Chairman for the occasion, Dr. Hassan Wahab of the Department of Political Science commended the CES for the lecture and called for a sustained effort in promoting European Studies among students and faculty of the university in other to build a critical mass of African experts on European Studies. This, according to him, would help shape public policy in a manner that follows best practices of governance and development in Europe.
As the special guest, Her Excellency Diana Acconcia, Head of the European Union delegation in Ghana, noted that the desire to achieve long term peace and prosperity was the background behind the foundation of the European Union (EU). She said it is a unique integration experience that changed the life of more than 400 million people. According to her, the road has been bumpy and it has known many challenges and crisis. Nevertheless, in her view, it remains the deepest and most successful regional integration experience ever.
Dr Victor Osei-Kwadwo of Maastricht University, Netherlands, noted that European Studies provide an analytical foundation for understanding the main topics, debates, theories and developments surrounding the integration of Europe. It complements a variety of theoretical perspectives on governance and development with the EU basically serving as an empirical case study.
On the relevance of European Studies in Africa, Dr Osei-Kwadwo stated that EU-Africa relations have existed for a long time. For instance, cooperation between Ghana and the EU has been in existence since the first Lomé Convention in 1975 which established non-reciprocal trade preferences from Europe to its African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partner countries.
However, he noted that there are challenges to European Studies in Africa and for that matter Ghana. First of all, there are only three centres of European Studies across the African continent. European Studies is therefore quite unpopular among many students and faculty in the universities and other educational institutions in Africa. Whereas many Europeans have had the opportunity to fully understand Africa and can claim expertise in African Studies even more than Africans themselves, there are virtually no African experts in European Studies.