The European Union is a growing and developing organization which is becoming more and more important. That's why its relations with other countries in a more and more globalized world are also moving. The EU relations with the developing world are as old as its creation but they have undoubtedly evolved since the Treaty of Rome in 1957. Internal and external factors are responsible for most of the evolution: the enlargement notably brings new concerns and the EU is affected by the international impact. The relations with the Third World always have to be redefined.
But the first concern is to define the "Third World". What and where exactly is it? What are the adopted criteria: geography, economy performance, political regime, poverty, etc? Obviously, the definition shouldn't take into account a single criterion, which could reveal its inadequacy. A classification by incomes seems to be useful but not sufficient, because it does not reveal necessarily the development situation of the country. Certainly the Human Development Index (HDI), which is still imperfect but offers a new perspective, has to be observed as giving a better assessment of "development".
[...] The implementation of the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1994 allowed to promote regional peace and stability whereas European governments got interested more and more in the ASEAN countries as they keep developing as New Industrialized Countries. That's why, in order to consolidate the relation, the Commission's general Asia Strategy” in 1994 fixed political as well as economic new key objectives, such as human rights issues, more audacious trade and investment, an enhanced EU presence and profile throughout Asia. Actually, the question was to reinforce the EU-ASEAN dialogue facing an accelerating European CFSP and a more and more important Japanese and American involvement in Asia. [...]
[...] It has to be improved, notably in the domain of complementarity, where much still remains to be done. The objective is to fix reachable goals. The development policy forms an important aspect of the European Union's international role and should be conceptualized considering a broader purpose to establish a single foreign policy international presence. Without external achievements such as relations with the Third World, the idea of European Union as an international actor linking united countries is undoubtedly diminished. Bibliography E. Grilli, The European Community and the Developing [...]
[...] While its intervention and action seem to be rather dissipated and more or less effective, the European Union shows its vision of what should be an “international actor”. By way of introduction, we'll analyze the way the EU acts everywhere in the world through a development policy based on three aims that also are ways to intervene : acting together, broadcasting values, improving globalized organization. Then, we'll focus on the EU-Asia relationships. Thus first, we'll see to what extent the EU concretizes its conception of international role through its relations with the Third World. [...]
[...] Improving globalized organization While putting into action some European general principles in the Third World, the Union also tries to gradually integrate the developing countries into the world economy and to improve the globalized organization of the world. Firstly, implementing the EU trade policy, it organizes economic relations with developing countries that are almost put in an equal footing with it. An EU single market and a monetary union require a common external trade policy, considered as EU's most potent tool of influence in foreign policy” (Peterson and Bomberg, 1999). [...]
[...] So the European intervention and regulation reveals its limits in matter of political intervention on ASEAN matters and thus as an important development actor. Future Challenges and a need for a redefinition of the relation Then, some future challenges will have to be taken up quickly by the EU : development funding, reduction of poverty, imposing Human Rights principles, finding a new framework for the relation. Indeed, these challenges come within the framework of a very different world as the one of Kuala Lumpur Conventions, and the changes of the current world jeopardize the EU-ASEAN relationship. [...]
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