EU HOPES TO START NEGOTIATIONS ON POLITICAL AND TRADE AGREEMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 (Bernama) -- The European Union (EU) hopes to start negotations on a political cooperation agreement with Malaysia to push relations to greater heights, its ambassador and head of delegation to Malaysia, Vincent Piket, said Monday.

The agreement would provide a new and coherent structure to work together,
he said, adding that there had been a lot of dynamics in the relationship
between the two par ties as they had been involved in cooperation in
various areas.

"Presently, Malaysia and the EU have no political cooperation agreement...we
do a lot together but we need to move one step together and the cooperation
agreement will have us do that," he told reporters after delivering a talk on
"The Lisbon Treaty" at the Asia-Europe Institute, University Malaya, organised
as part of the Ambassadors Lecture Series, here.

The Lisbon Treaty, signed in December 2007 and which came into force on Dec
1 2009, was to make the 27-member EU states more efficient, more democratic
internally and more coherent on the world stage.

Answering a question, Piket said that if everthing was agreeble between the
two sides, the negotiations might start middle of this year.


"This is a negotiation that will normally take a year-and-a-half or two
years (to complete)...it provides a first time ever formal structure on our
bilateral relations," he said.

He said the political cooperation agreement provided for cooperation in
areas such as fighting terrorism, border crossing crime and human trafficking as
well fighting weapons of mass destruction and also climate change.

Piket said the EU perceived Malaysia as an important dialogue partner on a
number of issues like the intergration of Asean where the EU was wholeheartly
supportive and the Mindanao peace process where Malaysia was actively playing
the role of facilitator.

"We value Malaysia's role in global issues such as fighting climate
change...we believe Malaysia has the capability to make a meaningful
contribution...and (is) a leader within Southeast Asia on climate change
mitigation action," he said.

Piket said the EU also hoped to start bilateral trade negotiations with
Malaysia this year.


"We feel we have to do that in order to give a boost to our trade.Our firms
and companies expect action from us against the backdrop of the economic crisis
and doing more trade is one way of doing it...we want more engagement with
Malaysia.

Piket said that previously the EU had tried to negotiate a Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) with Asean as a group but found it was not a feasible option
presently.

"For that reason, the EU now has proposed with most advanced Asean members
to start negotiations on bilateral trade agreements first and later on to build
these bilateral agreements into a regional framework," he said.

The EU is Malaysia's fourth largest trading partner and its second largest
source of foreign direct investment.Malaysia is also EU's second largest trading
partner in Asean after Singapore.Total EU-Malaysia trade last year was close to
RM250 billion (US$1=RM3.19).

Commenting on the recently unveiled New Economic Model (NEM), Piket said
it was no doubt a very courages policy statement by the Malaysian government.

"I think (it's) a very frank and honest statement...with a very
self-critical assessment of weaknesses and constraints in Malaysia's economy
that hamper the growth.

"It is not easy for a government to say that some of its own policies
are not working properly...in that sense I think it commands respect," he said.

Piket said the EU, with its economic potential and technological know-how,
could contribute a lot in stimulating those areas of growth that are of
particular priority to the economic model, such as the services sector.

-- BERNAMA