Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-07-Speech-3-220"
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"en.20080507.17.3-220"2
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"Mr President, thanks to the Nuremberg action plan and the first EU-ASEAN Summit held last year, relations were re-launched.
To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union must continue to make progress in its relations with ASEAN. We are offering a stronger political association, close economic relations in our mutual interest and cooperation in many spheres. Of course we support the step taken in 2007 in the integration process, the ‘ASEAN Charter’. We want the commitments in this Charter on human rights and democracy to become a reality, especially in Burma and also in other countries in the region. On this basis, our relations will be strengthened. Thank you very much.
For example, albeit slowly, as we have been told, a free trade agreement and bilateral association and cooperation agreements are being negotiated.
In the Committee on Foreign Affairs we supported this stepping up of relations, also at the trade and economic level.
ASEAN is a process of regional integration that we applaud and it is becoming increasingly relevant. It brings together more than 500 million inhabitants of ten countries, which are very diverse – as Mr Ford has said – and in general have great potential for growth.
The European Union is ASEAN’s second largest trading partner. We should increase our sales and also the investments made by our businesses, and an ideal instrument is the Free Trade Agreement. Other countries within and outside the continent want something similar, as the Commissioner said.
The agreement should be very broad and not be limited to purely trade questions. It should also be accompanied by bilateral association and cooperation agreements that include the question of respect for human rights.
These bilateral agreements can logically only be signed with the ASEAN countries that fulfil the necessary political and economic conditions, and of course not all the countries fulfil them, especially Burma/Myanmar, whose government is subject to restrictive measures adopted by the Council and supported by Parliament.
Unless the political circumstances there change, it is clear that there cannot be a bilateral agreement with Burma, nor can Burma be part of the Free Trade Agreement. In April Parliament reiterated its rejection of the political situation and demanded the release of political prisoners.
With regard to Burma, I must take this opportunity to express my condolences for the many victims of the cyclone. I echo the remarks of the President of Parliament at the beginning of the afternoon."@en1
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