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THE
European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations are scheduled to begin negotiations for a
comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) in May at the
sidelines of the Asean economic meeting in Brunei. The
blocs expect to sign the trade deal within two years.
Eneko
Landaburu, director general for external relations of
the European Commission, led the EU delegation at the
just concluded 5th Senior Officials Meeting with the
Philippines
February 12-13 in Manila.
The
parties discussed terms of negotiations for two
agreements that include the free-trade agreement between
the two blocs and a partnership cooperation agreement
between the EU and the
Philippines.
In a
joint statement, they declared that, “The Philippines
and EC side exchanged views on the architecture of the
EU-proposed Asean-EU Free Trade Agreement and agreed
that the FTA should be ambitious, balanced, and
comprehensive. The differing levels of development
within Asean should be considered. To reflect this, they
recognized the need for flexibility as regards
transnational periods in the implementation of the FTA.”
Philippine trade assistant secretary Ramon Kabigting
said the formal start of the negotiations on the FTA
between the EU and Asean is expected at the sidelines of
the Asean Economic Ministers Meeting in Brunei,
Darrusalam. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson will
meet with Asean economic leaders.
The
partnership agreement is a framework to cover
cooperation on economic, financial, migration, and
energy between the EU and the Philippines.
Landaburu said the first agreement is expected to
strengthen relations with the Asean region and the
second with the Philippines.
“EU is
fully committed to building stronger relations with this
country. My visit to the Philippines seeks to make some
contacts with key officials to discuss political and
economic development,” he said in a press conference at
the Hyatt hotel in Manila on Tuesday.
He
continued, “We want to improve our relations through two
instruments; first we agree that a free trade agreement
in the context of Asean-EU multilateral level, a
region-to-region agreement, will strengthen capacity to
cooperate and increase investments and develop and
improve trade between both regions.”
On the
second agreement, he said the EU anticipates it could
support all the efforts to contribute to poverty
alleviation, the peace process as well as find
cooperation with the Philippine government in dealing
with the increasing number of illegal Filipino workers
entering the EU.
“There
is a need for the EU to fight illegal migration because
we are unable to control this. We have to discuss this
issue with the Philippine government for better capacity
of understanding.”
He said
there are an estimated 35,000 Filipino illegal migrants
in Paris and Nice in France; 80,000 illegal migrants are
working as domestics in
Milan and
Rome in
Italy. Belgium, a small country with 10 million people,
is also host to some 5,000 Filipino illegal migrants.
EU
believes the increase in the number of illegal workers
threatens the security and economic stability of their
member countries.
Landaburu said EU is currently developing a policy on
migration for better protection of foreign workers, on
strengthening labor rights, and improving living
conditions—but only for those who are documented. |
