Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy

We continue our speaker series about Taiwan’s status in the world with a look at its relationship with the European Union. None of the EU’s twenty-seven member states has diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but nineteen member states and the EU itself have opened quasi-embassies there and the EU holds a ministerial-level trade and investment dialogue with its government.  In recent years, as tensions with China have heightened over trade disputes and the war in Ukraine, the EU Parliament has increasingly emphasized Taiwan’s shared democratic values and their similar experiences living with a powerful, authoritarian neighbor. Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, a scholar who divides her time between Brussels and Taiwan, will unpack the drivers and limitations of Europe’s affinity for Taiwan.

*Please note this event was originally scheduled for March 10.

Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy is an affiliated scholar at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, adjunct assistant professor at National Dong Hwa University in Hualien, Taiwan, and visiting fellow on EU-Southeast Asia relations at the Martens Centre. Based in Taiwan since 2020, she has worked as a geopolitical analyst and academic, expanding her regional network and deepening her expertise in the Indo-Pacific. Her work on Taiwan’s internationalization, viewed through a European lens, places particular emphasis on Southeast Asia and India—key regional partners for Europe. From 2008 to 2020, Dr. Ferenczy served as a political advisor in the European Parliament, focusing on European foreign and security policy and human rights in the world. She is the author of Europe, China, and the Limits of Normative Power (Edward Elgar Publishing 2019) and Partners in Peace. Why Europe and Taiwan Matter to Each Other (Palgrave Macmillan 2024). In addition to her academic roles, she is associated research fellow at the Institute for Security & Development Policy (ISDP Stockholm), head of the Associates Network at 9DASHLINE (London), fellow at Agora Strategy (Munich), and a regular commentator in international media.