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Programme

The EU has evolved from a western European trade body into the supranational and intergovernmental body that it is today, being a single market with a common trade, agricultural, regional development cooperation and limited foreign policy. It introduced a single currency, the Euro, adopted by 13 member states. After the Second World War, an impetus grew in Western Europe for institutional forms of cooperation through social, political and economic integration. A new constitution for the European Union was signed in 2004 by representatives of the member states of the Union but was subject to ratification by all member states, two of which subsequently rejected it in referenda. Its main aims were to replace the overlapping set of existing treaties that comprise the Union's current constitution, to codify uniform human rights throughout the EU and to streamline decision making.

As for ASEAN being one of the most successful experiments in regionalism is now finding itself at a crossroad. With the rise of China and India, the reemergence of Japan and enhanced trade liberalization, ASEAN feels the pressure to make itself more cohesive and integrated. Thus ASEAN has decided to draft and adopt an ASEAN Charter to be adopted by the ASEAN Summit in Singapore by November 2007. Besides strengthening the ASEAN Secretariat, the establishment of an ASEAN Human Rights Commission as well as an ASEAN Court of Justice is being considered. Such a charter would give ASEAN a much needed legal personality and make it a more responsive and dynamic integrated regional organization.