Asean meetings a chance to deepen ties with Europe

THIS past weekend's Asean meetings in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi are vital for this region. But they are also very important for the ties between Asean's 10 countries and the 28 countries of the European Union (EU).

The relationship between our regions is an essential one.

The EU is still today the world's largest economy. But the rise of Asia is the most important economic and political story of our time. And the countries of Asean are playing a central part in that rise.

As a result, Asean, taken together, is the EU's third-largest trading partner outside Europe. And, if we exclude Asean's internal trade, the EU is this region's second-largest partner, after China, but before Japan and the United States.

That means that the political leadership on both sides has a responsibility to work towards deepening our economic ties. That's happening in three ways:

First, I have been in Kuala Lumpur this weekend for an annual meeting on trade with Asean Economic Ministers. It is a longstanding and useful tradition that I am very happy to continue in my first year as EU trade commissioner.

Second, Asean is working to complete the Asean Economic Community by the end of the year - freeing up the movement of goods, services, capital and labour between its 10 member countries.

But the creation of the Community is not only an important step towards closer integration in South-east Asia. It will also deepen this region's ties with us in Europe.

The EU knows from experience that a more integrated market here in Asean is also an advantage for our exporters and investors in this region.

The creation of the European Single Market in the 1990s was not only a huge step for Europeans, it also benefited our trading partners because it was suddenly so much easier to do business with our continent as a unified bloc. That is why we expect that a deepened Asean community will also create prosperity back in Europe.

Our experience also means that the EU understands the challenges Asean is facing. Building a closer union is not easy. We have been working on it for 60 years and we are still not finished. For that reason, the EU is a strong supporter of Asean's work, while fully respecting the unique "Asean way" of working together.

The third way in which we are deepening our economic ties is by building a zone of free trade between our two regions. This is a longstanding ambition. The first talks to negotiate a broad agreement between Asean and the EU were launched in 2007. It was subsequently decided to pursue negotiations between individual Asean countries and the EU, and last year we concluded a highly ambitious free trade agreement with Singapore, marking an important reference point for negotiations with other Asean members.

EU-ASEAN FREE TRADE

This year, we hope to conclude a second ground-breaking agreement with Vietnam, which is one of the region's most populous and fastest growing economies. We are also talking to other Asean member countries to assess the next steps forward with them.

The EU continues to see a strong region-to-region free trade agreement with Asean as a critical objective in the medium term. The completion of the Asean Economic Community offers us a good opportunity to consider how deeper economic integration within the region can support that objective.

At the same time, we will assess how bilateral Free Trade Agreements between the EU and individual Asean countries can become the building blocks of a region-to-region agreement.

This is an ambitious agenda of cooperation and negotiation. But in a world where the connections between economies are just as important as the transactions within them, those efforts are worth it. If we want a prosperous future for South-east Asia and for Europe, we must work together to achieve it.