‘Reflections on Wales and Europe’

Dr Hywel Ceri Jones CMG

Dr Hywel Ceri Jones CMG, alumnus and Honorary Fellow of Aberystwyth University, is to give the 16th Institute of Welsh Politics (IWP) Annual Lecture, organised this year in collaboration with WISERD, the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data & Methods.

The lecture is entitled ‘Reflections on Wales and Europe’. 

The lecture will take place in the International Politics Building on the Penglais campus on Wednesday 20 April 2016, and will commence at 7pm. All are welcome.

In this timely lecture, Dr Hywel Ceri Jones will discuss the relationship between Wales and Europe, and share a few of his personal reflections on how this relationship has developed over the last few decades and what the future holds for Wales and the UK within Europe.

From 1993 to 1998, Dr Jones held senior posts in the European Commission: Director of Education, Training and Youth Policy, Director of the task force for human resources, education and training with responsibility for the conception of the EU’s flagship programmes including Erasmus and Tempus.

Dr Jones was then appointed to act as Director General of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Policy and Industrial Relations (1993-1998).  During this period he had responsibility for the European Social Fund and co-directed the EU’s Peace and Reconciliation Programme in Northern Ireland.

Subsequently, Dr Jones has acted as Chair of the European Policy Centre, Director of the European Network of Foundations, co-chair of the European Consortium of Foundations for Disability Rights, Governor of the European Culture Foundation and Trustee of Ecorys and the Federal Trust for Education and Research and of the Franco British Council. 

In 1998-9 he served as European Adviser to the Secretary of State for Wales, chairing the all Wales taskforce on Wales and Europe.  In 2014-16 he has acted as one of the three European Funding Ambassadors to the Welsh Government, helping to promote and maximise the opportunities presented by the EU directly managed programmes, and a final report of their conclusions and recommendations for the Welsh Government has just been published on 17 March 2016.

Dr Hywel Ceri Jones was brought up in Port Talbot and then Clydach in the Swansea Valley, the son of a Welsh minister and chaired bard at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

He was educated at Pontardawe Grammar School before going on to study at the University of Aberystwyth where he graduated with honours in French, qualified as a teacher and pursued research into the life and work of Henri Barbusse, a French writer.

In 1961-62 he was President of the Aber Students Union, and received a John and Elizabeth Williams Scholarship to study in Europe.

Dr Jones has been awarded Doctorates by the Universities of Sussex, Leuven, Brussels, Wales, Ireland and the Open University and holds Fellowships from Swansea, Trinity, Glyndwr, Glamorgan, Westminster and the Institute of Education, Scotland.  He received the award of the Gold Medal from the Republic of Italy for services to education and culture and has been awarded the CMG. 

Speaking ahead of the lecture, Dr Huw Lewis, acting Director of the Institute of Welsh Politics, said that he was “delighted to welcome Hywel Ceri Jones back to Aberystwyth University to deliver the Institute of Welsh Politics’ Annual Lecture, organised in collaboration with WISERD. As someone who has spent much of his life working within the European Commission and been central to so many European developments over the course of the last thirty or forty years, and at a time when the UK's future relationship with the EU is such a hot topic, we look forward very much to hear Hywel Ceri’s vision for Wales within Europe. “

The Institute of Welsh Politics
The Institute of Welsh Politics is an independent and non-partisan research centre established within the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University in 1997, the oldest department of its kind in the world.  It was established to promote the academic study and analysis of all aspects of Welsh politics and the IWP is now internationally recognised as an important research centre on political regionalism and sub-state nationalism.

This is the sixteenth Institute of Welsh Politics Annual Lecture.  Previous speakers include three First Ministers of the National Assembly of Wales, Alun Michael MP, Rhodri Morgan AM, and Carwyn Jones AM as well as Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, Sir Simon Jenkins, Professor Tom Nairn, Professor Robert Hazell, Professor Michael Keating, Kirsty Williams AM, Huw Lewis AM, Adam Price MP, Leanne Wood AM, Professor Charlie Jeffery and the Rt Hon Stephen Crabb MP and Secretary of State for Wales.

WISERD
The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) was established in 2008, and is a collaborative venture between the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, South Wales and Swansea.  The principal aims of WISERD are to develop the quality and quantity of social science research in Wales, particularly through externally-funded research projects; t promote collaborative research activity across the participating universities and across disciplines and sectors; to develop the social science research infrastructure in Wales; and to strengthen the impact of social science research on the development of policy in the public, private and third sectors through a focus on knowledge exchange and engagement.

AU12716

Share