The issues discussed at the upcoming ASEM summit in Brussels, with the overarching theme ‘Quality of Life’ will cover a wide variety of topics which will feed into the summit: environmental issues, labour policy, trade, investment, anti-piracy, anti-terrorism and sustainable development.
Achievements, challenges and opportunities
Among the achievements of ASEM is that it functioned as a cataclyst for the growth of intra-regional cooperation in Asia. It also acted as a forum to coordinate joint points of view as an input in other international and multilateral organisations such as the G20, WTO and the United Nations. The Free Trade Agreement between Korea and the EU received a strong impetus from ASEM as well.
Notwitstanding these tangible results ASEM faces many challenges. It is threathened by duplication, inefficiency, vagueness, loss of focus and follow-up. In order to be more succesful, ASEM should be more result-oriented, and there should be concrete measures to strengthen the working mechanisms. What is needed are management-guidelines and procedures to operate more effectively. Ultimately, ASEM can be a forum to facilitate informal discussions to address topics which are relevant for global organisations. This Track II approach of ASEM could be one of its main strenghts.
This was the outcome of the curtain raiser of the ASEM Outlook at the Konrad Adenauer Stifting on 14 April 2010.