Contact: Sammy McDavid
The deputy head of the European Commission's Washington delegation is coming to the state next week for visits in Jackson, Starkville and Natchez.
For the past year, John Burke Richardson has held the second-ranking post at the commission, which is the European Union's official diplomatic delegation to the United States. In addition to the nation's capital, the commission also has offices in New York City.
The EU, an institutional framework for the construction of a united Continent, was created after World War II to economically join together Europe's nations so another war among them would be unthinkable.
In Jackson on Oct. 23, Richardson will be special guest of the state Department of Economic and Community Development for a noon luncheon. He also will speak at a private evening dinner given by the Jackson Executive Lecture Forum.
The following day [Oct. 24], Richardson travels to Mississippi State University for a public presentation during the morning at McCool Hall. Later, he is scheduled to tour campus, making stops at Mitchell Memorial Library, the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station's campus farming operations.
"Will There Ever Be a United States of Europe?" is to be the topic of his remarks for the Mississippi State presentation. The program begins at 11 a.m. in 118 McCool.
Richardson's Mississippi visit is organized by Janos Radvanyi, holder of Mississippi State's Chair for International Security and Strategic Studies.
After leaving Starkville, the diplomat visits Natchez, where he will meet with Mayor Butch Brown and tour antebellum homes.
Trained as an economist, Richardson is a veteran European Commission official who has been involved in major issues of international trade, and energy and environmental policies. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and the University College of London.