September 23, 2003
New European
Union Fellow
Antonius Klom shares
Latin American focus
This year’s European Union Fellow brings to the LBJ School an international expertise that extends far beyond the borders of Europe.
Antonius Klom, an official of the European Commission’s External Relations Directorate-General in Brussels, spent the last seven years dealing with the European Union’s diplomatic interests in South America. From 1996 to 2001, Klom managed the EU’s region-to-region political and trade negotiations with the Mercosur, the common market between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. He then spent two years managing the European Commission’s political relations and development aid with Brazil, as well as coordinating all other EU policies toward that country.
Klom says he was attracted to the fellowship at LBJ School because of the Latin American profile of both the School and UT Austin. “Having made the choice to build on my interest and background in Latin America rather than to move on to a new area," he said, “I felt that this campus offered an ideal opportunity to continue learning and also to make a contribution.”
The European Commission sponsors eight fellowships at U.S. universities for EC officials. The fellowship at the LBJ School is one of the most long-standing and stable of these, which Klom said was another factor in his decision. “I liked the idea of being part of a tradition, “he said. “Joining an institution where the role of EU Fellows is already understood means that there is an established framework on which to build.”
According to Klom, his role is at least twofold. One is
to increase Americans' understanding of the culture and politics of Europe
in general, and another is to share his
specific knowledge and background related to the European Union and Latin
America.
“As an EU Fellow I am here to build bridges with Americans,” he said. “That can include explaining Europe’s various stances on Iraq, for example, or sharing thoughts about the impact of the European Single Market on the world economy. In that sense the fellowship is a diplomatic mission.”
European relations with Latin America provide a different context in which to view Europe, said Klom, and he will draw heavily on that context in the two courses he will teach next spring. At the LBJ School, he will offer a seminar called “European Union External Relations,” which will begin with an introduction to the European Union and the European Commission’s External Relations Directorate, use case studies to illustrate how the EU relates to various regions of the world, and then focus specifically on the EU’s relations with Latin America. He will teach a similar course at the undergraduate level in the UT College of Liberal Arts.
Klom explained that his work in the External Relations Directorate provides an abundance of material on which to draw. “The term ‘external relations’ within the EU has a much broader meaning than the traditional foreign affairs or foreign relations function of government,” he said. “It includes not only politics and trade but also such areas as agriculture, the environment, science and technology.”
He added that the task of negotiating agreements with foreign governments on such a wide range of issues is extremely complex. In the case of Latin America, for example, not only are there major economic disparities among countries, but there are language differences that can affect negotiations at every step of the process.
Within Mercosur—the South American trade bloc with which the EU is negotiating a comprehensive political and trade agreement—the variations in vocabulary among Spanish-speaking negotiators on both sides make both oral and written communication a diplomatic challenge, said Klom. “As a very simple example, in discussions involving trade in apricots, negotiators using Castillian Spanish would use the word ‘albaricoque,’ whereas those using the Platian Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay would use the word ‘damasco,’” he said. “There are endless possibilities for misunderstandings and errors, beginning with back-room negotiations and continuing throughout the writing and approval processes.”
The language factor is just one of many pieces in the puzzle, according to Klom, and his courses next spring will look at the full range of political and logistical processes that make up the larger picture of EU-Latin American relations.
A native of the Netherlands, Klom holds an M.A. degree in Political Science and an M.A. degree in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam, as well as post-graduate diplomas in International Security and in International Relations from the Netherlands Institute for International Relations in The Hague. He speaks six languages: his native Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Marilyn Duncan
2003 Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
P.O. Box Y
Austin, TX 78713-8925
512-471-4962
23 September 2003
Comments to: lbjweb@uts.cc.utexas.edu
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