Taiwan’s former premier leads young professionals to Brussels to expand European engagement

Taiwan's Fair Winds Foundation, led by Taiwan's former premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), completed its first-ever delegation to the European Union in late May and early June, bringing a cohort of young Taiwanese professionals to Brussels for an intensive exploration of EU institutions and policy.

Looking beyond Taiwan’s horizons

For years, Taiwan’s Fair Winds Foundation has pursued a simple but ambitious mission: helping young Taiwanese understand the world beyond their shores.

Founded by Jiang and like-minded partners, the non-profit organization has built a reputation for organizing overseas study delegations that expose young professionals to major political, economic, and social developments around the world.

Its programs have taken participants to the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Southeast Asian countries, and mainland China, offering opportunities to engage with policymakers, academics, business leaders, and civil society organizations.

Jiang said that the foundation has taken young Taiwanese eastward, westward, northward, and southward.

This year, the foundation embarked on a new chapter. In late May and early June, it launched its first-ever delegation to the European Union led by Jiang himself, bringing Taiwanese young professionals to Brussels, Belgium for an intensive exploration of the institutions and ideas shaping one of the world's most influential regulatory powers.

Europe matters to Taiwan

According to Jiang, the European Union occupies a unique position in the contemporary international order.

“The EU is an important third pole beyond the United States and China,” he said. “Its influence extends beyond politics and economics. Its legal frameworks and cultural power have global significance that the world, including Taiwan, must pay attention to.”

The timing of the initiative was, according to Fair Winds Foundation, vitally crucial. As the EU moves forward with landmark policies such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) while advancing regulatory frameworks governing digital privacy and artificial intelligence (AI), Brussels has become a focal point for governments and businesses worldwide.

This phenomenon is often described as the “Brussels Effect” — the ability of European regulations to shape global standards simply because companies seeking access to the EU’s vast single market often adopt its rules internationally.

According to the foundation, the delegation aimed to help participants understand not only how these policies are formulated but also how consensus is built among the EU’s 27 member states despite their diverse political and economic interests.

A broad-based approach to learning

With that mission in mind, Fair Winds Foundation designed an itinerary that went beyond official meetings.

The delegation visited EU institutions and Taiwan’s representative office to the EU and Belgium, engaged with European political figures including members of parliament, met with scholars and practitioners at universities and colleges, exchanged views with think tanks and non-governmental organizations, and observed innovation ecosystems through visits to incubators and startups.

Jiang emphasized that the foundation has always sought to expose participants to multiple facets of society rather than narrowly focusing on a single sector.

“When we organize overseas programs, we do not want young people to see only one dimension of a country,” Jiang said. “We try to include government institutions, think tanks, businesses, startups, NGOs, and universities so that participants can develop a more comprehensive understanding of the society they are visiting.”

That philosophy has guided Fair Winds Foundation's long-running delegations elsewhere.

Annual visits to Japan have fostered enduring partnerships with Japanese counterparts, while recurring programs in the United States have introduced Taiwanese youth to innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley, Jiang said.

Cultivating future leaders of Taiwan

The inaugural EU delegation drew an accomplished group of participants aged 25 to 35. Many are graduates of top-tier universities, with expertise spanning law, international politics, finance, supply chains, agriculture, technology, AI algorithm, sustainability, and others.

Yet the program’s aspirations extend beyond professional networking.

Jiang said that he hopes the experience will encourage participants to think more deeply about leadership itself. Effective leaders, he argued, must learn to balance competing interests and consider the needs of those who often lack a voice in policymaking.

In an era increasingly shaped by geopolitical rivalry, technological disruption, and social fragmentation, the foundation believes international exposure remains indispensable.

For Taiwan, a globally connected economy navigating a rapidly changing world, Fair Winds Foundation’s EU delegation is an effort to cultivate a generation capable of engaging Europe with greater sophistication, while fostering deeper mutual understanding between Taiwan and one of the world’s most consequential political and regulatory actors.