INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The EU participates in a series of consultative meetings with ASEAN which includes the ASEAN Regional Forum ( ARF), ASEAN - EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM) ASEAN-EU Economic Ministers Meeting, ASEAN-EU Senior Officials Meeting, the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) 9+1 and 9+10 and the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) Meeting. The meetings offer opportunities for the EU and ASEAN to review contemporary political, security, economic and development cooperation issues affecting the two sides. The ASEAN-Brussels Committee, ASEAN-Bonn Committee, ASEAN-London Committee and ASEAN-Paris Committee also assist in conducting and maintaining the dialogue with the EU.

At the apex of the dialogue process is the AEMM which sets the direction and pace of the dialogue and reviews the political and security, economic and functional cooperation between the two sides. The AEMM is held once every 18-24 months and lasts for two days. A total of 12 meetings have taken place since 1978 with the recent 12th AEMM being held in Singapore in February 1997. Economic Ministers from the two sides have also met on two occasions, once at the Special Meeting of Ministers of Economic Affairs from EC and ASEAN in 1995 in Bangkok and the other during the 9th AEMM in Luxembourg.

Economic Cooperation

In 1995, the EU was ASEAN's second largest export market and the third largest trading partner after Japan and the United States. The EU accounted for 18% of ASEAN's world trade while ASEAN accounted for only 2.6% of the EU's world trade in 1995. Even though this is not an encouraging development, the overall trade between ASEAN and the EU has grown by 31.5% which is an indication of the growing importance of the ASEAN market to the EU.

The potential of ASEAN as a market and a gateway to the rest of the Asia Pacific is an important dimension of the ASEAN-EU relationship. Given the current state of development and infrastructure development activities, ASEAN has also became a major market for the EU's capital goods and investments. The EU's foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region increased by 13.1% from US$35 billion in 1993 to US$ 39.5 billion in 1994.

Development Cooperation

When the ASEAN-EC Cooperation Agreement was signed in 1980, technical assistance was one of the three areas emphasised, the other two being commercial cooperation and economic cooperation. The objective then was to enhance ASEAN's self-reliance and to promote wider regional development and cooperation.

Over the years, EU technical assistance has covered areas that range from trade, industry, finance and banking, minerals and energy, agriculture and forestry, transport and communications to social development, human resources development and narcotics control.

In particular, the EU has assisted ASEAN in setting up the ASEAN Customs Institute For Training and Research (ACITAR), the ASEAN-EC Energy Management Training and Research Centre (AEEMTRC), the ASEAN Timber Industry Research and Development Centre and the ASEAN-EC Management Centre. In addition to these are the European Community Investment Partner Scheme (ECIP), the annual programmes for ASEAN Business Leaders and the development of the ASEAN Macroeconomic Outlook Model.

Priorities for cooperation between the two sides have evolved over the years. When the dialogue process was initiated, ASEAN's interests were mainly in the fields of agriculture, industry, transportation and communications and the concerns were on access to markets, GSP privileges, commodity prices, stabilisation of export earnings, resource transfers through the ODA and investments. By the Karlsruhe Meeting of 1994, the priorities in development cooperation had shifted to the alleviation of poverty, human resources development, health and family planning, the role of women, respect for human rights, environment and sustainable development. Since 1997, new areas of cooperation such as intellectual property rights, standards and conformance and the harmonisation of customs procedures and valuation have been initiated. The role of the private sector is increasingly being recognised in ASEAN-EU dialogue as the ultimate objective of enhancing ASEAN-EU economic relations. There has also been a decided shift in emphasis from a donor-recipient relationship to one based on equal partnership and mutual benefit in the ASEAN-EU Dialogue. This change was heralded as early as 1991 at the 24th AMM/PMC when ASEAN Foreign Ministers spoke of this "new trend" in the dialogue relationship, as manifested on a number of occasions with ASEAN co-financing some of the projects. One of these is the ASEAN-EU Partenariat, where ASEAN has made a substantial financial contribution. The Partenariat brings together about 600 ASEAN and EU small and medium-sized enterprises jointly exploring business opportunities in the region.

The ASEAN Secretariat has also benefited from the EU's technical assistance through the Institutional Development Programme for the ASEAN Secretariat (IDPAS). This programme not only augments the competence of the Secretariat's professional staff in regional policy-making but also helps the Secretariat to network with institutions in Europe and develop its Information Technology capabilities.