Building a foundation for ASEAN-EU relations

By Medyatama Suryodiningrat

JAKARTA (JP): When foreign ministers of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet for a two-day meeting in Singapore today, they will have the onerous task of trying to build a new foundation for future relations between two of the world's most successful regional organizations.

While the EU is the oldest of ASEAN's eight dialog partners, the relationship in recent years has been plagued by political issues which has limited the cooperation's growth.

The question for tomorrow's meeting is whether the relationship, which informally began in 1972, is mature enough to take a bold new step forward or whether it will again be bogged in unnecessary political agendas.

For sometime now ASEAN has been pushing for a third generation agreement on cooperation with the EU. The new agreement, or action plan, will contain concrete ideas and set the tone for things to come.

The new agreement is seen by ASEAN as a progression of the 1980 Cooperation Agreement in which the EU assisted ASEAN in various programs such as institutional linkages, scientific and technical exchanges.

"That was a first and second generation agreement which would later be improved by a third generation agreement," explained the Director General of Indonesia's National ASEAN Secretariat, Rahardjo Djamtomo.

The formulation of a new agreement is seen as a natural continuance to further solidify ties as the world enters a new age.

"However due to certain steps taken by Portugal, a next generation agreement was never realized," he told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

Despite the deepening and widening of the relationship, positions on both sides have hardened. ASEAN has asserted its stance against bringing in "extraneous issues" such as human rights and in particular the issue of East Timor and Myanmar.

The association would like to see dialog focus on expanding economic relations and creating a more equal partnership which is no longer based on a donor-recipient format.

During an informal summit here in November, ASEAN leaders strongly warned the EU that relations could be unnecessarily aggravated if extraneous issues were brought into the cooperation framework.

The EU on the other hand has so far neglected these warnings, and issued their own statement on East Timor a few weeks later in a meeting in Dublin.

While there has been no formal submission of human rights on the agenda, certain EU countries are expected to try raising these issues.

Any formal agreement made during the dialog would also be subject to prior discussion of sensitive issues.

On the other hand the EU also realizes that it cannot afford to be left out of the subregion's dynamic economic growth. Thus some sort of middle ground must be taken.

Veering away from a formal agreement, the EU and ASEAN are instead likely to issue a joint declaration which in essence will contain action plans for the future direction of the relationship.

The formulation of the directions of the relationship in a declaration will also resolve the political impasse which has held captive the drafting of a new agreement to support and further promote the growing economic relationship.

An important feature of the meeting will be the role of the Netherlands as president of the EU.

As a former colonial power here, the Netherlands should be familiar with Indonesia's sensitivities. The Hague also learned that if it meddles too much in Indonesia's domestic affairs, Jakarta will not hesitate to take drastic measures.

Jakarta in 1991 renounced Dutch aid to Indonesia for what it considered intrusions on Indonesian internal matters. A Dutch- lead aid group on Indonesia was also disbanded and a new one created without the participation of the Netherlands.

Dutch ambassador to Jakarta, Paul Brouwer, maintained that his country as co-chairman of the meeting in Singapore would do its best to make it a success.

"The Netherlands with the responsibility of the EU presidency is dedicated to the success of the EU-ASEAN Ministerial meeting. And we will do what is necessary to make that success happen," he told the Post.

While he refused to speculate on the outcome of the meeting, the Netherlands could play a crucial role in toning down aggressive overtures on sensitive issues.

"I would like to emphasize that our relations between EU- ASEAN, between member states, are based on mutual respect and non-confrontation and that any discussion should be held in that spirit," Brouwer said.

During their exchange of views and their attempt to map out a new direction for the relationship, EU and ASEAN ministers will look at two main papers.

The first is a report by the Eminent Persons Group. Formed in 1994, the 16 member expert panel was assigned the task of presenting recommendations for an EU-ASEAN partnership.

Their report in essence stresses the need for stronger economic cooperation between the two organizations. It further underlines that much of the potential inherent in the relationship has not been fully exploited.

The second paper is the EC Communications on a creative dynamism in ASEAN-EU relations. The paper reveals that it not only focuses on the economic side but also political and security issues.

Rahardjo said that it is from these deliberations that ministers hope to formulate the declaration.

"So the declaration would embody the direction of the EU-ASEAN relationship in the future. And if possible also contain action plans on the direction which have been drafted together and that would include political-security, economics, social-cultural aspects including the development of human resources," he said. "How far it can be achieved is subject to negotiations."

Among the programs expected to be agreed on is the establishment of an ASEAN Partinariate which would bring together the private sector from the EU and ASEAN particularly the small and medium scale enterprises.

Greater people-to-people contact will also be highlighted with hopes of establishing institutional and personal networks among universities, parliamentarians and other professional organizations in the two regions.

Despite the potential of lingering sensitive political issues, Rahardjo remains optimistic the meeting will be a success.

"Personally I'm optimistic because all countries want to see the EU-ASEAN relationship blossom," he said.

"The reality is that the Asia-Pacific region cannot be neglected, and any relationship should be based on partnership and mutual benefit...Europe needs this region and vice versa," he remarked.