EUROPEAN UNION AND ASEAN IN A TURBULENT WORLD

John Mark H. Villanueva

De La Salle University – Manila
Philippines

2017 was a big year for both the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)and the European Union. ASEAN celebrated its 50th anniversary while the EU
celebrated its 60th anniversary. The EU, is often referred to as the most successful regional
organization in the world while ASEAN is often referred to as the second.
After Europe’s accomplishment in establishing the European Union (EU), regional
organizations including ASEAN have stated their aspiration to follow this regional
community-building initiative. The Bali Concord II in 2003 paved the way for ASEAN to
begin concerted initiatives to forge regional integration through an integrated regional
community by the year 2015. The declaration proposes that ASEAN community building
could happen by promoting greater regional security engagement, economic
collaboration, and sociocultural or people-to-people interaction among member states.
(Moorthy, 2012)
EU, an economic and political union of 27 European countries, has its roots in the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community
(ECC), going back as far as 1958. It began to take shape during the intervening years by
way of accession of new member states and an expanding policy scope. EU was
essentially created after many consecutive years of consultation along multiple channels
at various levels of government.
Both EU and ASEAN were founded to promote peace. The EU was founded, after
two devastating world wars, to prevent the recurrence of war in Europe and to
institutionalize peace through economic integration. ASEAN was founded to create a
peaceful environment in South-east Asia so that the ASEAN countries could focus their
energies on their economic development.
They seek to integrate the economies of their member states into a single market
and production platform. In the case of the EU, there is freedom of movement of goods,
services, capital and labor. In the case of ASEAN, the movement of labor is not free. The
ASEAN Charter obliges the member states only to facilitate the movement of business
persons, professionals, talents and labor. This is a major difference between ASEAN and
the EU.
There are several important differences between ASEAN and the EU. The first
difference is that ASEAN is an inter-governmental organization. The EU, in contrast, is a
supranational organization in which its member states have agreed, in certain areas, such
as trade, to pool their sovereignties. In other words, the member states have voluntarily
agreed to give up part of their sovereignty. The pooled sovereignty is exercised by the
European Commission on behalf of the member states. The European Commission acts
like a government and is entitled to enter into treaties. The commission has the power to
put forward proposals for legislation.
On the other hand, ASEAN Charter has enhanced the power of the secretary-
general. One of his most important responsibilities is to issue an annual report card on
each member state's compliance with its obligations. The decision-making process is also
different. ASEAN takes all its decisions by consensus while EU can decide by taking
votes. There is a system of weighted voting, with different countries being given different
numbers of votes. However, in the area of common foreign and security policy, decisions
are based on unanimity.
In addition, EU has a common currency called the euro. Only 19 of the EU's 28
members are members of the euro zone while ASEAN does not have a common currency
and has no plans to have one.
Being a citizen of the Philippines, a developing country and part of the ASEAN
community, my view is that learning from the experience of the EU, ASEAN will increase
its efforts to ensure that it is not viewed as an “elitist project”. Instead, ASEAN must
ensure that it enjoys the support of the 625 million citizens of ASEAN.
As ASEAN promotes “Inclusive Growth” within the region, we can learn from
EU’s experiences and struggle to achieve this goal. Hence, I am excited to learn more
about these two organizations and explore how these two regional organizations relate
to each other and how they respond to the challenges to the multilateralism in a turbulent
world. I am looking forward to be part of this once in a lifetime opportunity.