Royal with cheese

Thursday, May 18, 2006

We began our day at 8 AM local time, a bit early for many of us after we
had toured the social scene of the city with students from KU Leuven
the previous evening.  Our first morning lecture was from Professor Jos
Delbeke who has done extensive research regarding the European
Environmental Policy.  His lecture included how the EU has dealt with
issues regarding energy by having a relatively stringent environmental
policy.  Even though energy policy is not within the jurisdiction of
the European Union, through environmental policy, energy policy is
affected.  For example, a market for shares of carbon dioxide
emissions, an air pollutant has been created, making it possible to
“pollute” where it is cheapest in economic terms.  We then heard a
presentation by Eric Buyst, also a professor from KU Leuven.  Dr. Buyst
talked about the history of economic integration of the European Union,
going back to around 1900. He noted that the real beginning of the
current integration started in the 1950s after the devastation of two
World Wars.  He then tracked the development of the European Union
along with the development of the monetary policy.  He also noted quite
humorously that “Europe is not a charity club” in regards to the EU
accepting new Member States.

That afternoon, we boarded our charter bus and headed to Brussels to the
headquarters of McDonalds-Europe.  The Director of Government and
Public Affairs Paloma Castro Martinez Issues addressed such issues as
marketing in the EU and nutrition.  In the EU, obesity is not as much
of a problem as it is in the US; however, in order to be competitive, McDonalds has had to adapt its
menu to EU consumers’ tastes by serving beer alongside soft drinks. 
Other issues raised were the need to address each audience in each
country differently rather than if the EU were a largely homogenous
culture.  In addition, it was interestingly noted by our hosts that
McDonalds serves as an icon of the United States.  As a result, they
are often the target of blame for American policies deemed not
acceptable by Europeans.  Past incidents of demonstration against
Americans have included such things as protesting outside of the
restaurants or throwing tomatoes at customers entering or leaving the
McDonalds.

After lunch at McDonalds, we returned to the De Warande, the private club
owned by Baron Piet van Waeyenberge.  Our first speaker was Hanne
Beerlandt from TRIAS, a non-governmental organization that makes
relatively small loans to people living in the Global South.  Loans
made by the agency are generally ones that would be much too small to
be made by banks because of high transaction costs for the amount of
money involved.  Loans are made to groups of people who when combined,
make the loan efficient, and have the means of collecting from people
who may otherwise default on the repayment. Each year, the Belgian
government spends 1.8 million US dollars are spent on the program to
build up the economy of other developing countries.

We then heard from Wolfgang Munch, an EU Commission Economic and Policy
Analyst.  The EU is given the power by member states to decide on
agricultural policy.  Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) was designed
after World War II to encourage production of agricultural
commodities.  Payments were coupled to production to encourage a large,
stable food supply.  Today, the food supply is quite stable for the EU
and surpluses have started to become issues as a result of payments
being coupled to production.  In 2003, payments were decoupled, and a
large amount of the protection regarding sugar was removed, opening EU
sugar markets to the world market.  To phase out payments, a
market-based system where rights to produce sugar are bought and sold,
has been developed.  Within five years time, the system will be gone
and sugar will only be directly (income) supported.

After a brief sight seeing tour in Brussels and Leuven, we returned to Leuven
for dinner.  Longing for an adventure, many followed Rachel and
Professor Westgren to a Spanish restaurant.  Tapas, samples of food
with 3 to 4 bites of each dish were split among a group instead of each
person getting one large dish so as to experience a variety of Spanish
foods.

Alas, another educational and fun-filled day is complete, with many more to come!

-Justin, Karen, and Michael

Posted by IBIP Administrator