About ASEM : Overview

Key Characteristics | Introduction

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal process of dialogue and co-operation bringing together the 27 European Union Member States and the European Commission with 16 Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat. The ASEM dialogue addresses political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between our two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership.

Initially consisting of 15 EU member states 10 ASEAN member states plus China, Japan, Korea and European Commission, ASEM saw its first enlargement at its Fifth Summit in 2004, where both new EU and ASEAN member states became part of the process: Cambodia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Myanmar, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia. The subsequent round of ASEM enlargement in 2007 brought in India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Romania, Bulgaria and the ASEAN Secretariat, increasing the grouping into a total of 45 partners.

Current ASEM partners:
Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, Vietnam, the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Commission.

Key Characteristics

Key characteristics of the ASEM process include:

Informality: Complementing rather than duplicating the work already being carried out in bilateral and multilateral fora;
Multi-dimensionality: Devoting equal weight to political, economic and cultural dimensions;
Emphasis on equal partnership: eschewing any "aid-based" relationship taken forward under our bilateral relations in favour of a more general process of dialogue and co-operation
High-level focus, stemming from the Summits themselves.

Introduction

The origins of the ASEM process lay in a mutual recognition, in both Asia and Europe, that the relationship between the two regions needed to be strengthened, reflecting the new global context of the 1990s, and the perspectives of the new century. In July 1994, the European Commission had already published "Towards a New Strategy for Asia", stressing the importance of modernising our relationship with Asia, and of reflecting properly its political, economic and cultural significance.The Commission Communication of September 2001 ("Europe and Asia: A Strategic Framework for Enhanced Partnerships") reaffirmed this objective. In November 1994, Singapore and France proposed that an EU-Asia summit meeting be held, to consider how to build a new partnership between our two regions. Following Singapore's proposal, the first ASEM Summit was held in Bangkok in March 1996 which marks the beginning of the ASEM Summit.

Within the process, ASEM has Summit meetings which is held every second year in Asia and Europe alternatively. This is the highest level of decision making in the process. Besides the attendance of the head of states, the Summit also features accompanying ministers, Head of the European Commission and other stakeholders.

Apart from the Summit meetings, the ASEM process is carried forward through a series of Ministerial and working-level meetings, as well as a number of activities arising from this.

ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meetings are organised in the intervening years of the Summits. In addition to pursuing the ASEM dialogue under the first and third pillars (political dialogue, co-operation in other areas), the Foreign Ministers Meeting is also responsible for the overall coordination of the ASEM process. Reporting to Foreign Ministers, a Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) is held normally twice a year.

In addition to that, ASEM Finance Ministers' Meetings (FinMM) are also held to discuss financial matters and launch initiatives for both regions. Reporting to Finance Ministers, a Finance Deputies' Meeting has been held at irregular intervals. For co-ordination purposes, ASEM finance officials also meet regularly at a "Core Finance Group Meeting", held in Washington on the margins of the spring and autumn WB / IMF meetings.

In its effort to create a strong partnership in the growing economic links of the two regions, ASEM Economic Ministers' Meetings (EMM) are organised in traditionally every two years. A Senior Officials' Meeting on Trade and Investment (SOMTI) is held normally twice a year and is responsible to report to the Economic Ministers Meeting. Also in the economic field, an annual Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF) has brought together private-sector representatives from the two regions. ASEM economic coordinators (currently Japan and Vietnam, plus EU Presidency and European Commission) also meet as and when required.

Other than the regular ministerial meetings, ASEM also holds ministerial conferences in other fields including Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology, Environment Ministers' Meeting (ENVMM), Ministerial Conference on Co-operation for the Management of Migratory Flows between Europe and Asia.

Outside the official ASEM process, civil society representatives from Asia and Europe have organised "alternative ASEM" meetings in Bangkok in March 1996, in London in March 1998 and in Seoul in October 2000 and in Copenhagen in September 2002.

ASEM covers potentially all issues of common interest to Europe and Asia. ASEM has provided a dialogue platform to address international matters such as United Nations reforms, weapons of mass destruction issues, terrorism, migration flows or WTO negotiations.

As an informal process of dialogue and co-operation, based on equal partnership and enhancing mutual understanding, ASEM can best work to facilitate and stimulate progress in other fora, and should not seek to duplicate what is being done within our bilateral and other multilateral relationships with Asia. ASEM has no Secretariat. Foreign Ministers and their senior officials (SOM) also have an overall coordinating role within the ASEM process, and are assisted in this by an informal group of Coordinators (currently Japan and Brunei Darussalam on the Asian side, and the EU Presidency and Commission on the European side).

The only existing ASEM institution is the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), a international not-for-profit foundation, charged with promoting cultural, intellectual and people-to-people contacts between the two regions.

Also reflecting the informality of the ASEM process, specific co-operation initiatives necessary to meet the objectives set out by ASEM can best be followed through at the bilateral level. However, specific ASEM cooperation programmes have been put in place. The ASEM Trust Fund, set up in response to the Asian Financial crisis in order to provide technical advice and training on financial sector reform and social policy reform. The TEIN (Trans-Eurasian Information Network) project was endorsed as one of the new ASEM initiative at the 3rd ASEM Summit in Seoul in 2000 to improve the interconnectivity between European and Asian research and education networks.

Within this informal process of dialogue and cooperation, ASEM activities can be grouped into three main "pillars" : political, economic, and cultural/intellectual.Within each of these fields, a number of activities have already been given priority, including for example

in the political field, new areas of common interest which have emerged from the recent meetings include the fight against terrorism or the management of migratory flows; discussions on human rights, on the protection of children, and on the impact of globalisation are also being held
in the economic and financial field, cooperation on reducing barriers to trade and investment, and on financial and social policy reform; a new area of common interest which emerged from the recent meetings is a reinforced dialogue on issues relating to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
and in the cultural and intellectual field, a wide range of enhanced contacts and dialogue between the two regions, and co-operation in the protection of cultural heritage.

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