RP, EU approve final text of new partnership, cooperation accord

MANILA, Philippines – The European Union (EU) and the Philippine government have agreed on the final text of a partnership and cooperation agreement (PCA) between the two parties, EU Ambassador Alistair MacDonald said yesterday.

MacDonald, who had just returned to Manila from talks in Brussels between EU and the Philippines, said a PCA will build a stronger basis for EU-Philippine cooperation in all fields in the years ahead.

He said the negotiations were led by European Commission’s Asia Director James Moran and Philippine Ambassador to the European Union Enrique Manla.

“This seventh round of PCA negotiations had been able to conclude on all outstanding points, and to establish a final text for the approval of our respective authorities. We can look forward to the text being initialed in the very near future and to its formal signature in the coming months,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald said that until now, the legal foundation for EU-Philippine relations had been the EEC-ASEAN cooperation agreement signed in 1980.

“That agreement had served its purpose well over the last three decades, but was in many respects out-of-date. With the agreement now reached on the PCA, the EU and the Philippines will both benefit from a framework agreement which will be fit-for-purpose for the 21st century and which will lay the foundations for even stronger relations in the years ahead, whether in the political, economic or cooperation fields,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald cited that the need to update the legal framework for EU-Philippine relations had first been acknowledged in a discussion between EC president Jose Manuel Barroso and President Arroyo in September 2006, on the margins of the ASEM Summit in Helsinki.

He said further discussions at the time of the ASEM summit in Beijing in October 2008 allowed formal negotiations to commence in Manila in February 2009.

“Three rounds of negotiations in 2009 and four rounds in 2010, allowed agreement to be reached at the conclusion of the seventh round of negotiations, held in Brussels on 2-3 June. The Philippines is the second ASEAN country to complete negotiations on an updated PCA with the European Union (the PCA with Indonesia was signed in November 2009, while negotiations are underway with Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore,” MacDonald said. –Jose Rodel Clapano (The Philippine Star)