Introduction
Europe and Asia share a long history of multilateral and bilateral relations. The various political, economic and cultural ties have always been very tight and thus, both regions have many things in common.
In order to establish a platform for exchange, enhance the understanding of European and Asian policymakers of common current as well as possible future challenges and recommend required policy frameworks, this project was initiated by the European Commission, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, East Asian Institute, European Policy Centre and its associate European Union Centre Singapore.
The „EU-Asia Dialogue“ was launched to the public on February 16, 2012, in Singapore and on March 21, 2012, in Brussels, Belgium. Eighty percent of the project`s budget is provided by the European Commission and twenty percent by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung of Germany through funds of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The overall objective was to contribute to the formulation of relevant sustainable development policies for framing a comprehensive and constructive partnership between Asia and the EU as well as its member states. The stakeholders should become aware of the regional and cross-regional developments in order to identify both short- and long-term challenges, to prevent their emergence and solve them at an early stage.
The topics identified to be examined in this project to achieve these objectives were:
1. Climate Change Diplomacy
2. Eco-Cities
3. Migration / Integration
4. Social Cohesion
5. Human Trafficking
6. Maritime Piracy and Security
7. Food Security
The final beneficiaries were policymakers, researchers, civil society, opinion leaders and the general public in Europe and Asia. To ensure an equitable participation of both regions, activities were implemented in different countries of the two continents.
Specific Project Objectives
The specific objective of this EU co-funded project was to strengthen, deepen and share knowledge and understanding of selected common sustainable development challenges across the EU and Asia, therefore increasing the relevance of the policies formulated in the two regions to tackle these issues. The action provided opportunities for policymakers and researchers in Europe and Asia to come together to share and learn from each other’s developments experiences and challenges, identify best practices and find common policies and solutions that will help shape a common future for Europe and Asia. In particular, the action strengthened the knowledge and deepened the understanding amongst target groups of the challenges faced by Europe and Asia in ensuring sustainable development. Expertise was shared and policy learning across the two regions was encouraged by enhancing cooperation across sectors and disciplines in search of innovative policy recommendations to the challenges faced by Europe and Asia. This supplemented rigorous research and debates on policy options in addressing the broad ambit of sustainable development and security challenges arising from globalization.
Activities
The “EU-Asia Dialogue” included a huge variety of different measures to achieve its objectives.
Among others, these activities were:
•71 comprehensive reports, case studies, comparative studies, papers and recommendations for policy dialogues
•7 workshops for researchers and policymakers
•17 political roundtables, policy dialogues, policy panels, political role-out events and political forum
•7 papers and book publications
•8 international conferences
•33 decentralised briefings for policymakers, academics and the wider public
•6 Brussels EU-Asia policy briefings
•Establishment of an online platform
This mixture of activities ensured that researches were able to share their analyses, policymakers got well informed and that all included stakeholders had the chance to exchange their knowledge as well as their perspectives on the particular challenges and thus, benefit from the project. The direct target groups were policymakers and researchers in Europe and Asia.
The Partners
The EU-Asia Dialogue was implemented by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, the EU Centre Singapore and the European Policy Centre in Brussels in close cooperation with the European Union.
