Table Of ContentReproduced from EU and Asia: Sharing Diversity in an Inter-Regional Partnership, by Romano Prodi
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EU AND ASIA:
SHARING DIVERSITY IN
AN INTER-REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies was established as an autonomous
organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other
specialists concerned with modern Southeast Asia, particularly the many-faceted
problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social
change.
The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies
(RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies
(RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS).
The Institute is governed by a twenty-two-member Board of Trustees
comprising nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of
Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic
organizations. An Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operations; it is
chaired by the Director, the Institute’s chief academic and administrative officer.
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Singapore Lecture
6 July 2002
EU AND ASIA:
SHARING DIVERSITY IN
AN INTER-REGIONAL PARTNERSHIP
Romano Prodi
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
First published in Singapore in 2002 by
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Pasir Panjang
Singapore 119614
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: <http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg>
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Prodi, Romano.
EU and Asia: sharing diversity in an inter-regional partnership.
(Singapore lecture series, 0129-1912; 22)
1. European Union.
2. European Union—Membership.
3. European Union countries—Foreign economic relations—Asia.
4. Asia—Foreign economic relations—European Union countries.
I. Title.
II. Title: European Union and Asia: sharing diversity in an inter-regional partnership
DS501 I597 no. 22 2002 sls2002026348
ISBN 981-230-195-X (soft cover)
ISSN 0129-1912
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies.
Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd.
Printed in Singapore by Stamford Press.
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
CONTENTS
I Opening Address Lee Hsien Loong 1
II EU and Asia: Sharing Romano Prodi 3
Diversity in an
Inter-Regional Partnership
III Discussion 13
IV Closing Remarks Chia Siow Yue 20
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
I
Opening Address
Lee Hsien Loong
Your Excellency, Mr Romano Prodi, President, Commission of the
European Communities, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to the 22nd
Singapore Lecture. We are honoured to have His Excellency President
Prodi with us today, on his first official visit to Singapore and
Southeast Asia as President of the European Commission.
President Prodi has an impressive career. Also known as
“Il Professore”, he is widely admired for his modesty and integrity.
He was Professor of Economics and Industrial Policy at the University
of Bologna, Italy and Harvard, in the United States. In the 1970s, he
founded the economic research institute, NOMISMA, in Bologna.
Prior to his appointment as President of the European Commission
(EC) in September 1999, President Prodi was Italy’s Prime Minister.
During his premiership from 1996 to 1998, he successfully reformed
the Italian economy and fiscal policy, paving the way for Italy’s
entry into the European Monetary Union. President Prodi is an
expert in economics and industrial policy and has an excellent track
record as the leader of Italy’s largest industrial and financial state
holdings, the Italian Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), in
the 1980s and early 1990s.
President Prodi presides over the Commission at a critical time
when the EU is faced with the enormous and complex challenges of
enlargement and the reforms necessary for a Union of twenty-five
member states to function smoothly and effectively. These new
challenges follow the successful implementation of the euro, a feat
unparalleled in history.
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
2
A champion of European integration, President Prodi has to put
forward bold proposals to further strengthen the Union. He also
combines political experience, economic knowledge, and diplomatic
skills, which will serve him well as he leads the Commission in these
important tasks ahead.
At a time when the EU is preoccupied with enlargement, we are
pleased to see that the Commission has not neglected Asia. We are
honoured that President Prodi has chosen Singapore as the venue to
articulate his vision for an EU-Asia partnership. This demonstrates
the continuing importance that the EC places on its relations with
Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Singapore’s ties with the EU are anchored in history, economics,
and culture. Relations between us are strong and based on mutual
interests. Economically, the EU has a major stake in Singapore.
Singapore accounts for 30 per cent of the EU’s trade with Southeast
Asia and 40 per cent of the EU’s total investments in the region. We
are a strong supporter of the ASEAN-EU and Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM) processes, which have institutionalized and improved
region-to-region links. In September 2001, the EC adopted an
updated Asian policy paper entitled “Europe and Asia: A Strategic
Framework for Enhanced Partnership”. The paper sets out the
overall strategy for its relations with Asia in the coming decade in a
wider framework of political, economic, cultural, and other contacts.
Singapore welcomes this development, and we are also pleased that
the EC will establish an EC Delegation Office in Singapore later this
year.
May I now invite His Excellency President Romano Prodi to
deliver the 22nd Singapore Lecture and share with us his perspective
of Asia and EU relations.
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
II
EU and Asia: Sharing Diversity in an
Inter-Regional Partnership
Romano Prodi
Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is
both a pleasure and an honour to be with you today to deliver this
Singapore Lecture.
The list of speakers invited to give this series of lectures includes
many prestigious names and world leaders. I am happy to join their
company and I thank the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for
inviting me.
This is my second visit to Asia this year, but my first to
Southeast Asia as President of the European Commission. I welcome
this opportunity to discuss issues of mutual concern with the
distinguished company present today and in meetings with members
of the Singapore Government.
Co-operation between Europe and Asia is going from strength
to strength: we have ASEM, the co-operation framework with
ASEAN, and a wide range of bilateral and informal contacts.
We have close economic ties and share many concerns. Our
relationship now embraces far more than just “trade and aid”.
So why have I chosen diversity as my theme today?
Diversity defines the relations between two entities that are not
identical. Diversity in nations and cultures, in interests and objectives,
creates the need for an effort towards convergence so that we can
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
4
work together. It characterizes the regional structures we are building
in Europe and Asia, and indeed our inter-regional partnership.
Integration processes are taking place at the two ends of the
Eurasian continent. Indeed, there is a clear trend towards regional
co-operation throughout the world.
In fact, regional co-operation, subject to certain principles and
conditions, is one of the most effective answers to the challenge of
globalization. I will come back to this issue later.
Ladies and gentlemen, we in Europe have been pioneers in
regional integration for close on fifty years. Here in Asia it is a more
recent process.
In the European Union it has given us tangible returns: peace,
stability, and growing prosperity. The greatest reward of all is that
we have stopped settling disagreements by armed conflict. But this
has taken many years of hard work.
We are now gearing up for the entry in 2004 of 76 million
people to our existing Union of 380 million people. The enlarged
Union will then account for more than a quarter of world GDP and
one fifth of world trade.
This expansion from six members to the current fifteen, and
soon twenty-five, is an amazing achievement. At the same time, we
have driven forward the process of “ever closer Union” — creating
common policies, a single market, and now a single currency — all
built on common institutions: a Parliament directly elected by the
citizens, a Council representing the Member States, a Commission
as an executive body representing the general interest, and the new
Central Bank. We can say that that Europe is a union of peoples and
states.
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
5
Of course it has put a strain on our structures. With up to ten
countries shortly joining the Union, the Brussels institutions and
decision-making machinery are shortly due for a shake-up.
The Convention on the Future of Europe will map out the future
shape of the EU. And we are doing it in a way that is more open and
democratic than ever before. All sources of democratic legitimacy at
national and European levels are represented within the Convention:
national parliaments and governments from the current and future
Member States and the EU institutions.
These achievements have been built on respect for diversity
and pluralism. These are fundamental values of European integration.
To give you a concrete example: when I work in the Commission I
always use English or French as a working language; when I go to
Parliament, I speak only my native Italian. And everybody there
speaks his own language. Of course it is a problem. We share around
twenty or twenty-one languages but this is what Europe means, it is
the Europe of peoples, nations and states.
And we must hold on to these values if we are to move forward
and make a success of enlargement. This is because the union we are
building rests on deeply-rooted national, regional, and local identities.
Our institutions have to reflect a balance between pooled
sovereignty and the preservation of national prerogatives. I shall
even go so far as to say that the EU epitomizes respect for cultural
diversity and for minorities. I heard the best definition of Europe in
the Romanian Parliament: Europe is a union of minorities.
But we have constructed a union on the basis of common values
and objectives. The Single Market and the single currency are
springboards to the growth and prosperity we all want.
© 2002 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
