Canberra, 8 October 2009

LETTER FROM THE AMBASSADOR

“Review of a natural partnership”

on occasion of the EU-Australia Ministerial meeting in Stockholm, 8 October 2009

see also EU & Australia move closer

Climate change is a lively topic in Australia these days; so too is the Global Financial Crisis; the same can be said for international security, or the Doha Trade Round. These are key issues not just for Australia but for the world. Though global in nature, these issues are local in their impact, whether in Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns or Karratha, or in London, Madrid, Bratislava or Waterloo.

That explains why they are among the issues being discussed today in Stockholm by Australian Foreign Minister Smith and his European Union counterparts Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Dr. Javier Solana.

But that is not all that they will discuss; the EU and Australia will also review the concrete results achieved over the past year in the context of the new

EU-Australia Partnership Framework; the report card is very good.

I am confident that our respective assessments on these issues will be very similar, if not identical. This is hardly surprising given the many shared values and the high degree of like-mindedness which exists between the EU and Australia today.

Like the Australian Government the EU believes that an Emissions Trading Scheme is a key element in facing the climate change challenge; it is the most efficient way to limit emissions and promote investments in clean technologies, especially in the most energy-intensive industries.

The EU has undertaken legally binding unilateral commitments to cut greenhouse emissions by 20% by 2020, rising to 30% if others make comparable efforts in the international negotiations at Copenhagen in December. Developed countries need to show the necessary leadership and be clear about their plans on mid-term emissions reductions, especially bearing in mind our responsibilities for past emissions.

The EU estimates that by 2020 developing countries will need roughly A$170 billion a year to tackle climate; the EU is prepared to pay its fair share in helping developing countries on this.

In May this year European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs was very happy to sign the agreement in Melbourne with Resources Minister Martin Ferguson making the Commission a founding member of Australia 's Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. The work of the institute is key to a cleaner energy future.

Like Australia the EU is very involved in the G20's attempts to navigate a path to the recovery of the global economy. The EU believes in open markets, appropriate fiscal stimuli, increased support to the international financial institutions and appropriate financial regulation. While we see positive signs, there is still a long way to go.

The crisis has propelled Europe into innovative measures in financial regulation. Some days ago the European Commission proposed a package of measures to reform financial supervision in Europe. For the first time in history certain supervisory powers will be given to European authorities – to safeguard financial stability across the Single Market and to enhance the competitiveness of the EU financial services industry. The European Commissioner responsible for these innovations, Charlie McCreevy, will visit Australia later this month for discussions with his Australian counterparts.

Like Australia the EU and its Member States are very concerned about international security issues. Some 22 EU countries have around 27,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and at the EU level we have a strong civil aid programme strengthening society from the ground up. The total European bill in Afghanistan is in the region of 8 billion euros.

The EU and Australia do not have identical trade policies. However, we both aim for a successful conclusion of the Doha Round of international trade talks. Recently Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean European Trade Commissioner Baroness Catherine Ashton penned a joint article for the Wall Street Journal with in which they urged all partners to complete the Doha deal. Minister Crean was the first Minister of the new Labour Government to visit Brussels, early in 2008 and I look forward to many more meetings between him and Commissioner Ashton in the future.

So to recap, I would expect a high degree of like-mindedness at today's discussions on those issues in Stockholm.

In October last year we – the European Union and Australia – gave ourselves a new tool for the development of our relations, namely, the EU-Australia Partnership Framework. As I mentioned, the Ministers will also today review how this first year has gone.

The Partnership Framework facilitates the EU and Australia in working increasingly closely to achieve common goals in a number of important areas including foreign policy and security, international trade, development assistance, climate change and energy security. Cooperation is also developing in areas such as science and research, innovation and technology, education and culture.

One year on and the results demonstrate that the Partnership Framework is a living document, reflecting today's increasingly dynamic EU-Australian relationship.

This dynamism can be seen from just some of the achievements so far;

This dynamism can also be seen from the ongoing activities such as the negotiation of new agreements - air transport or security of information - or the new activities which we envisage, such as the new specific dialogue on counter-terrorism, or regular Ministerial level trade talks.

There is a wide range of things still to be done on our joint “to do list” – the EU-Australia Partnership Framework.

Sometimes we forget that the EU was born out of war, to prevent war in the future such as Europe had known every fifty years or so going back through the centuries. This is particularly relevant for Australia which gave so many thousands of diggers in European wars, not once, but twice.

After WW II there were courageous European politicians - Schuman, Adenauer, Spaak, Spinelli and others - who wanted to do things differently this time around; to break out of this cycle of war. They agreed to put the industries of war under joint supranational control in an innovative form of international cooperation.

This process lead eventually to the EU of today with its wide range of policies and its 27 Member States comprising some 500 million people. These countries have pooled elements of their sovereignty and have integrated their economies in such a way as to make war between them unthinkable. This alone is good reason to hail the success of this unique experiment between nation states; ANZAC diggers will not be called a third time to help out in another cataclysmic European war.

Therefore, it is only natural that today's Europe and today's Australia should have so much in common; it is only natural that we should be doing so many things together.

All these various activities are pieces of a jigsaw; the completed picture is one where the EU and Australia are working increasingly together as natural partners facing global challenges on the basis of many shared values and like-mindedness.

His Excellency David Daly

Ambassador and Head of Delegation

Contact:

Jan Skorich
Communications Officer
Tel +61 2 6271 2747;
Email: jan.skorich@ec.europa.eu