The European Union has been described as "an economic giant but a political pygmy". Will its new Reform Treaty, currently being ratified by the member states, enable it to play a more powerful role in world affairs? 

Dick Leonard wrote the best-selling book, The Economist Guide to the European Union  (9 editions, translated into nine languages), widely recognised as the most authoritative guide to the EU.  A former British Member of Parliament, he has been covering the European Union as a Brussels-based journalist for over 25 years.

A former Assistant Editor of The Economist, he has also worked for the BBC and The Observer and has contributed to leading newspapers in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Japan and New Zealand, as well as the Brussels-based publications, European Voice and The Bulletin. He was for many years a contributing editor of the Washington-based magazine, Europe.

Apart from his work as a journalist, he has been a Professor at Brussels University (ULB), a senior consultant to the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the well-known think tank, and European Advisor to the British publishing industry.

A long-term campaigner for British membership of the European Union, he was one of the minority of Labour MPs who voted in favour of British entry in 1971, despite the opposition of his party. During his time as an MP, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Anthony Crosland, who was later Foreign Secretary.

Dick Leonard is the author or part-author of some 20 books, including Eminent Europeans, How to Win the Euro Referendum, Elections in Britain (five editions) and The Pro-European Reader, which he co-edited with his son, Mark Leonard. The ninth edition of his book, The Economist Guide to the European Union, published in 2005, has been widely and enthusiastically reviewed. Since then he has published the highly praised A Century of Premiers: Salisbury to Blair, to be followed by 19^th British Century Premiers: Pitt to Rosebery, which will appear in May 2008.

A highly experienced broadcaster and public speaker, he has made five successful lecture tours in the United States and Canada, as well as lecturing regularly in London, Brussels and other European cities.

Teh-wei Hu is a Professor Emeritus of health economics at the University of California, Berkeley.  At Berkeley, he served as associate dean (1999-2002) and department chair (1990-1993) in the School of Public Health.  He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Wisconsin.  

During the past 40 years, Professor Hu has been teaching and conducting research in health economics, particularly in healthcare financing and the economics of tobacco control.  Hu was a Fulbright scholar in China. He has served as consultant or advisor to the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Medicine, the Rand Corporation, the Ministry of Health in the People's Republic of China, Department of Health and Welfare in Hong Kong, Department of Health in the Republic of China (Taiwan), and many private research institutions and foundations. 

Professor Hu will speak to us immediately after an April trip to China, sharing his research and perspectives on the economics of tobacco control and the debate about healthcare system reforms in China (including a possible link between the two through financing expansions in coverage through increased tobacco taxation).

Joan Manuel Tresserras i Gaju was born in Rubí in 1955.

He holds a PhD in Information Sciences. He is a professor at the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the UAB, specialising in the history of communication, analysis of the information society, the study of cultural industries and mass culture. He has also taught about cultural management, political communication, communication policies and media analysis.

He received a summa cum laude Doctorate in Information Sciences (1988-89), the award for research into Mass Communication of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1989), and the Joan Fuster essay award (1994). Among others publications, he has written 'El Regne del Subjecte' (1987) and 'Cultura de masses i postmodernitat' (1994) which he co-wrote with Enric Marín, 'D'Ací i D'Allà, aparador de la modernitat' (1993) and 'La gènesi de la societat de masses a Catalunya' 1888-1939 (1999) which he co-wrote with Francesc Espinet. He has written some fifty academic articles and texts on social communication and has co-written the reports on 'Seguiment de L'impacte social de les noves tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació', sponsored by the Fundació Bofill, and has written 'Un segle de recerca sobre comunicació a Catalunya'. He coordinated the "Cultura" blog of the Informe per a la Catalunya del 2000 (1999).

He was the director of the Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the UAB (1991-1993) and coordinator of the degree in Journalism at the UAB (1997-1999). He was a member of the Institutional Advertising Advisory Committee of the Generalitat (1998-1999), a director of the Catalan Radio and Television Corporation (2000), director of the Catalan Audiovisual Council in charge of research, studies and publications (2000-2006), chairman of the Board for Diversity in the Audiovisual Media (2005-2006) and member of the Mixed Commission for State-Generalitat Transfers (2004-2006). He is vice-president of the Catalan Communication Society, a subsidiary of the Catalan Studies Institute.

Phillip Rothwell is associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He received a BA (Honors) in Math/Spanish and Portuguese/Phonetics, a MA (2000) and a PhD (2000), all from the University of Cambridge, UK. His areas of specialization are literatures and cultures of Lusophone Africa and Portugal.

Dr. Rothwell is the author and editor of numerous books, reviews, translations, and articles, including “A Postmodern Nationalist: Truth, Orality, and Gender in the Work of Mia Couto”. Bucknell & U.P. (2004); “Fuzzy Frontiers - Mozambique: False Borders, Mia Cuoto: False Margins” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies. Fall (1998); “A Tale of Two Tensions: Synthesis and Separation in Portuguese National Identity” Forum for Modern Language Studies. April (2000); “Shit, Shrimps, and Shifting Soubriquets: Iracema and the Lesson in Lost Authority” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies. May (2001); “The Phylomorphic Linguistic Tradition: Or, The Siege of (the) Portuguese in Mozambique” Hispanic Research Journal. June (2001). His most recent book is A Canon of Empty Fathers: Paternity in Portuguese Narrative (Bucknell University Press, 2007).