Head of EU Commission Talks at UTAR

On 7 November 2009, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Malaysia, His Excellency Vincent Piket, presented a talk entitled 'The EU and ASEAN: Current Challenges and Future Prospects' , which was jointly organised by Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) and Asian Center for Media Studies, at UTAR Petaling Jaya Campus.

UTAR Vice President (R&D and Commercialization) Prof. Dr. Lee Sze Wei was present to welcome His Excellency. In his welcoming speech, Prof. Lee pointed out, "EU has been a strong supporter of ASEAN's regional integration initiatives and has been open about sharing its knowledge through numerous cooperative programmes."

"I hope today's talk will shed some light on the future of these two parts of the world especially on how we can work together for the benefits of humankind," said Prof. Lee.

The talk was moderated by Dr. Leong Mun Yoon, Director of UTAR Centre for International Studies, who gave an eloquent preamble before he introduced Ambassador Piket to the audience.

His Excellency opened his talk by briefing the audience on the existence and roles of the EU and EU state missions in Malaysia.

Ambassador Piket also identified some common problems shared by these two regional groups from the political, economic, demographic, social and cultural perspectives.

His Excellency touched on the future prospects of cooperation between EU and ASEAN. He said, "ASEAN, as an emerging market, could contribute significantly to the economies of a lot of EU members, far surpassing that of the USA and China in terms of trade partnerships."

"Both groups could also forge better cooperation through education, research and technical development and technology transfer," His Excellency added.

His Excellency ended his lecture by sharing his optimistic opinion that both regions can together emerge as entities that can work together to bring prosperity to their own group.

The lecture ended with a lively Q&A session followed.

The European Union (EU) was set up in the aftermath of World War II to bring peace, stability and prosperity to Europe . Throughout its 60-odd years of history, the organisation has gone through many transformations due to the political and economic development of its member states. Now, the group has 27 member countries which share some common advantages, trade policies, educational privileges, immigration freedom and many more. Because of this, EU has established its missions overseas through the opening of its embassies to overlook the group's bilateral relationships with countries all over the world.

ASEAN, on the other hand is the regional association of the countries in the Southeast Asia , formed in August 1967, with aims similar to EU's formation. Today, ASEAN has ten member states. Although not set up with foreign missions like the EU, ASEAN member states are continuously working towards a better ASEAN.