Thursday, June 28, 2007

DOCUMENTARY TO GIVE TAIWANESE INSIDE VIEW OF EU NEGOTIATION PROCESS

Taipei, June 25 (CNA) A documentary focusing on European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso will be aired to give people of Taiwan an inside view of European Union (EU) negotiation processes, a Taiwan-based EU official said Monday.

The 52-minute documentary titled "At the Heart of Europe, " which will be aired at 10 p.m. July 5 on Public Television Service (PTS) channel, follows Barroso for six months and seeks to discover how much scope national governments, European members of parliament, pressure groups and journalists give the president of the commission.

"Taiwanese people can see what it is like working in a big international organization and see the daily negotiation process of the EU, " said Frederic Laplanche, deputy head of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) , the EU's representative office in Taiwan.

Viewers will be able to see and feel how difficult the negotiation process is and what the negotiation tactics are in Brussels, where an average of 50 meetings are held daily between 27 EU member states, he said.

"The documentary probably says something about Taiwan... One of the big lessons for Taiwan, in my opinion, is how the EU works and moves forward to face every crisis and find the solution, " he said.

The documentary was produced by the public television channel ARTE, which is a collaboration of Germany and France.