EU-Australia: A New Era in Relations

Address to the National Press Club

By His Excellency Ambassador Bruno Julien

Head of Delegation of the European Union

6 May 2008

Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests

'Stronger than an army is an idea whose time has come'.

So said Victor Hugo in the nineteenth century.

And this, could equally apply today in the context of a renewed and reinvigorated partnership between Australia and the European Union.

When the Prime Minister of Australia, visited European Commission headquarters in Brussels in early April this year during his first major international trip, he met the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso and several Commissioners. They agreed to launch a 'new era of creative engagement' between Australia and the EU.

In his remarks, the Prime Minister Rudd made it clear that one of the key reasons he had decided to visit Brussels was to turn a 'new page' in the EU-Australia relationship - and for it to become more 'broadly-based'. 

This was recently echoed by Stephen Smith who declared, " We are committed to re-engage with the European Union".

These remarks were echoed by President Barroso, who affirmed that the two sides had agreed to. I quote:

"Work hand in hand' to give more density and substance to the EU-Australia relationship".

At the time, Australian Financial Review journalist, Geoff Kitney, described the event as a 'symbolic return to normalcy in a relationship that was on the verge of being dysfunctional'.

While there may be an element of truth in this - and as a diplomat I should not comment on such catchy headlines - we should also not ignore the many years of solid cooperation between Australia and the EU in the past - cooperation that has spanned many different areas of public policy as I will explain later on.

It is true that the accession of the UK to the European Union brought suspicion and even some distrust about Europe 's intentions. And it is also true that, on both sides, we have too often concentrated more on those issues that divide us than what we have in common and the opportunities for cooperation. However, in the two and a half years which I have been in Australia , I have seen much that is, and was already, positive in the relationship.

But there is still a lot of room for improvement. 

Today I want to explore the foundations on which the relationship is based and also the direction it may take in the coming years, responding to the wishes expressed in Brussels last month.

The European Union: a case misunderstood

The European Union is not always well understood in Australia , although given its complex nature this is certainly not a criticism. 

Indeed, we face this problem in our own European Member States from time to time.

The European Union started with six member states, which, after the end of the Second World War, decided that they would transfer their sovereignty in a number of important areas to collective decision-making in Brussels .  This is what we now call decision-making at the 'Community level'.

Over the same time-frame as the European Union grew in numbers to 27, the Member States also decided to transfer some of their sovereign powers, and to decide collectively at the European level, in an increasing number of key areas. 

Thus, as the European Union broadened in size, it also deepened to cover many more fields of activity.

This transfer of sovereignty is based on the principle that the Union can act more effectively in certain areas than Member States acting individually and so is better able to make its voice heard in an increasingly globalized world. 

The project of European integration will forever be a work in progress. The Member States increasingly opt for a common voice on an ever wider range of policy matters, not only in the economic field but in areas that are important in the daily life of citizens, such as education, culture, health, environment, immigration when this brings an added value to purely national action. 

Some of these areas are not fully given over as a Community level competence, but are nonetheless decided by the Member States together.  Here too the Commission has a role to play to assist and encourage the Member States as they strive to make headway in this globalized world.

As you might imagine, this process of integration is an enormous task - and it goes on to this day, but we have come a long way since our beginnings in 1957 - something that some of our critics tend to conveniently overlook.

- Who imagines a war today between Germany and France ?

- Could the iron curtain have been dismantled so fast and all the former Soviet bloc countries integrated into a market economy without the EU?

- Could we have imagined that Germany would have given up its mark for the Euro?

- And in a domain as sensitive as defence, could we have imagined the creation of a Eurocorps and an integrated defence agency?

The list of achievements is so long that it would take me hours to cover all the ground but let me highlight just some.

So how does the scorecard of European integration read?

• A space of guaranteed civil liberties, peace and justice.

• The largest economy in the world (10 per cent per cent larger than the United States ).

• The world's largest free single market of 500 million inhabitants with free circulation of persons, goods services and capital, and to this we can now add a fifth freedom.that of the freedom of knowledge.

• Profiting from economies of scale and trans-national cooperation, the EU has built tremendous bridges between the member states (Trans Europe networks, management of common water resources, protection of the environment, a European Research Area, to name but a few).

This has recently been endorsed by Prime Minister Rudd who declared, "we at least should be providing our people, our business operators, with the same opportunities as national economies have in Europe, which is the ability to rock around the place across a market of half a billion people".

• Also the EU is increasingly a strong and moderating voice in international relations and, as noted by Prime Minister Rudd during his visit to Brussels , the EU is the largest provider of development assistance worldwide.

• Brussels has been dubbed the 'regulatory capital of the world' with an army of bureaucrats.  But did you know that the number of civil servants (including our translation services, which are the largest in the world) working for the European Commission is less than the Australian department Centrelink (at least before next week's budget anyway!)

And this description of Brussels is also a distortion of reality.  The EU does not usually regulate itself, but rather harmonizes existing, and often different, regulations of the Member States to create a single EU-wide set of rules. 

This set of common rules is what underpins Europe's single market, for the benefit of both its citizens and companies, including exporters or investors from Australia .

A good example is the EU-Australia wine agreement of 1994 which has seen Australia 's wine exports to the EU rise six fold to $1.4 billion a year.

What are the ties that bind Australia and Europe ?

While I understand perfectly well that Australia has a more than a vested interest in closer engagement with its immediate region, and with Asia more generally, I believe there are important reasons why Australians should not overlook or underestimate the value of its relations with Europe .  This should be the same for the European Union. Distance is less and less a tyranny nowadays.

In this context, for those of you who did not catch Prime Minister Rudd's speech in Brussels to the European Policy Centre last month,

(I say this because there was an inclination from some of the accompanying media to regard the Brussels leg of this overseas tour as a stopover between the US leg and China )

I would recommend it as essential reading. But allow me just to give you a flavour:

• Europe and Australia share the same principles of democracy and civil liberties.
• Only two weeks ago, the ANZAC day commemoration reminded us that so many Australians gave their lives fighting in 'European' wars, wars which the creation of the European Union has made sure will never happen again.
• There are very strong European diasporas in Australia with 90 per cent of Australians able to claim to European ancestry.
• The Australian political and legal system is inspired by Westminster and so, dare I say it, is of European origin!
• The economic and cultural exchanges between Europe and Australia have always been very strong.

On such strong basis we have already build solid relations in different fields. Let me give a few examples

In the economy (apart from being Australia 's largest economic partner for more than two decades, we have specific agreements, on mutual recognition of standards, wine, and just recently also in the field of aviation .)

In Culture - the current Turner to Monet exhibition at the National Gallery is one example and from the other side, there is of course the new Aboriginal Art Museum in Paris

In Education - last year, we signed a Declaration of Intent on Education & Vocational Education & Training. 

We have several mobility projects between Higher Education Institutions in Australia and Europe. 

We have three European Centres of Excellence in Australian Universities and Erasmus Mundus has already seen many students and academics spend 1-2 years in Europe undertaking European Masters Programs.

In Research - Our level of cooperation with Australia is very high. Australia was one of the first countries with which the EC signed a Science & Technology agreement back in 1994 .

Now we also have the Forum for European Australian S&T Cooperation -which was set up in 2001 to reinforce and further promote Europe-Australia cooperation in S&T.

Australian participation in Europe 's Framework Programs for Research is high: under the last program, more than 100 Australian entities participated in EU funded projects with a total value of €630Million. This trend is accelerating with the new research program.

These were just a few examples of a broader cooperation, but:

Why do we need to do more?

The answer lies in our respective roles in the world.  In addition to our existing good cooperation we are increasingly seeing a broader dimension to our cooperation, which goes beyond the rather static aspect of sharing similar values. 

Both Australia and the European Union are part of an increasingly globalized world in which we struggle to make sure that those shared values are upheld.  And, in particular, we both need to rely on a strong multilateral system.

The EU, in military terms, is not a superpower.  But through the sheer size of its economy and its commitment to development, it is a major exponent of soft power and we are able to exert influence in all parts of the world to promote democracy, stability and to help safeguard human rights.

In international conflicts the European Union is often also a third voice - a voice of moderation and conciliation - which can pull situations back from the brink of armed conflict.

Since 2003 there have been 17 interventions under the European Security and Defense Policy in conflict zones in the world from South America to Africa, Europe and Asia and not so far from here in Aceh.

During the same period there have also been 16 interventions in the world under the Rapid Reaction Mechanism facility in the conflict prevention and crisis response area.

The EU is already a global actor and we will continue to reinforce our position and influence. 

The adoption of the new Lisbon Treaty (We hope it will be adopted by the end of 2008) will streamline the EU's decision-making procedures and reinforce the EU's position not just in its traditionally very strong fields such as the economy and trade. 

It will also consolidate the democratic process, the functioning of the EU institutions and the political and foreign affairs visibility and efficiency of the EU.

One President of the European Council will be elected for two years. A special representative of the Union for foreign policy and security policy will be designated. He (or she!) will be in charge of one single External Action Service (uniting Commission officials with diplomats from national foreign ministries of the Member states).  

This creates high expectations for many Europeans such as the new foreign minister of Finland who declared recently to the FT:

"We are already a superpower in trade, a superpower in aid, but in foreign and security policy we haven't reached the level we should be at. I firmly believe we should seize the moment"

Australia on its side is a major player worldwide, a country which, as is often said, has been very successful in, 'punching above its weight'.   Australia has enjoyed a major role in the Asia/Pacific region and we welcome the Port Moresby Declaration that announced a new era of partnership with the developing countries in the region. 

The EU and Australia are the two major donors in the region and we work closely together on many projects and on coordinated policies.

The EU also very much welcomes the fact that Australia is now also willing to play a more prominent role in multilateral fora and to be involved on the international scene on much more than a bilateral basis. 

The first major act of the new government - ratification of the Kyoto Protocol - immediately underscored this change, and in this case the substance was, of course, also very much welcomed by the EU. 

What new dimensions can we bring in our relations?

So besides the traditional areas where improvement is still largely possible (trade, education, research) there is a broader agenda where we can work to reinforce our mutual faith in a world order and our common belief in shared values.

Even though our economic and commercial relationship is excellent, the relationship cannot be defined by these areas alone.  As I have said, it is based on such a solid foundation that this should allow us to use better political coordination to achieve more broadly based results in the current geopolitical agenda.

Before going there let me briefly touch upon what I called the traditional areas. It is obvious that the similar approach that we are taking on the issue of our competitiveness (I detect a strong element of parallelism between the EU's Lisbon strategy and the Rudd government's agenda) will allow us to enhance our cooperation in domains like:

Investment (i.e. in infrastructure) helped in that way by a strong and active European Australian Business Council who will visit several European capitals next month.

Innovation that was the main subject of the recent visit by Kim Carr to Brussels .

I won't say any more on this because I covered this at the National Europe Center of ANU on 14 March (you can find what I said on the delegation's website)

From our different perspectives, in our different parts of the world, our respective experiences can be valuable and can be brought to bear to address global challenges.

Turning to the broader context, the EU and Australia enjoy important roles, and during the past months, we have proved that we can enhance our cooperation in several fields:

1. In the international trading system : Where in the Doha Round context, we can increase our cooperation not only to address the liberalization in Non Agricultural Markets and services but also to address new challenges in agriculture (drought, competition of biofuels.), to improve the rules and to fight against non tariff barriers.
2. In ensuring good governance, peace and stability : Our increasing cooperation in counter-terrorism measures and combating drug trafficking and people smuggling particularly in the region is an important dimension in our relations. Australia has now a permanent observer in Europol.
3. In fighting against climate change, protecting the environment and sustainable development and addressing the energy supplies : Bali marked the beginning of a new cooperative era in our relations, that should not only lead to a better international coordination , but also to develop policies, instruments and techniques that are compatible
4. In providing assistance and development aid, particularly relevant in the Pacific: It is important for both of us to contribute to a better understanding of the situation in those countries and to better articulate our policies and instruments so that they be complementary rather than duplicatory.

We are currently working on a new EU/Australia partnership agreement to reflect our increasing cooperation.  This will hopefully be ready by mid year and while it will include much that we already do, it will also strengthen some aspects and bring in some new ideas along the lines I have just developed. This agreement will not only recall the common values, strategies and goals but also identify the concrete actions and the agenda for the future.

In this exercise, I very much hope that we will also be able to give much greater substance to people-to-people contacts (visa facilitation, tourism, emergency management cooperation ..). 

Beyond the more obvious bilateral cooperation such as the wine agreement or the air services agreement, we need to let our citizens see directly, and for themselves, the relevance that the relationship has for them.

And, as Prime Minister Rudd has said of our relationship 'it takes two to tango'. 

We should not forget that a new era of cooperation means just that, and so we hope that in those difficult areas where traditionally we have had problems, the new spirit of cooperation will also play an important role. 

A good example would be GIs, or geographical indications, which is Europe 's way of ensuring that its quality regional agricultural products receive the recognition that they deserve without others piggy-backing on their names. This is already in place for wines via the EU/Australia wine agreement and the EU would like to see stronger multilateral rules on the protection of such names generally.

Another would be to ensure that the citizens of all, rather than some of our Member States are treated the same way for visas to Australia.

In a new era, I am more than optimistic that we will listen to each other with greater care and attention, stop blaming each other and seize common opportunities.

Let's hope that our already excellent relationship will still develop and enlarge the scope of our cooperation in fields as broad as the panorama we can now enjoy from the EU balloon that is flying over the nation's capital every day.

Thank you for your attention.

-ENDS-

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