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EU introduces first EU-ASEAN Blue Book
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EU Ambassador Francisco Fontan gives remarks during the Blue Book launch ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on Sept 14. (JP/Ayomi Amindoni)
T
he EU launched the first edition of the EU-ASEAN Blue Book—an overview on development cooperation between ASEAN and the European bloc—on Wednesday.
Francisco Fontan, the EU Ambassador for the Blue Book launch ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, said the EU and ASEAN, as the two most advanced regional organizations in the world were committed to joint efforts in many areas.
"The EU has significantly increased in fact, more than doubled its development cooperation funds to support the ASEAN regional integration agenda from 2015 onwards. I believe that the enhanced EU cooperation with ASEAN, as outlined in this Blue Book, will contribute to an ever stronger partnership between the two regions," Fontan said.
The first dedicated development report highlights a number of joint efforts between the EU and ASEAN in 2015. The EU members represented the world's leading aid donor last year with €68 billion (US$76.3 billion) of funding, providing more than half of the total official development assistance.
EU funding for ASEAN regional development cooperation for the 2014-2020 period is set to reach €196 million. This comes in addition to EU bilateral cooperation with individual ASEAN countries—includes more than €2 billion in grants—and assistance from individual EU members.
The programs are mainly on political and security cooperation, economic programs boosting harmonization of standards, transport and customs procedure statistics and intellectual property, as well as supporting higher education, small farmers, disaster management, the fight against climate change and overall policy dialogue. (ags)
