EU: ASEAN can learn from eurozone crisis

European Union Ambassador and Head of Delegation to the Philippines Ambassador Guy Ledoux said that the lingering financial turmoil in the eurozone should teach lessons to economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN is currently eyeing to build an EU-like single market by 2015. “(The current Eurozone crisis) should be a good lesson for ASEAN members if they wish to take the common currency (roadmap of the EU) but there is a need to adopt a common economic governance policy," said Ledoux. He stressed that economic and political engagement is not an easy path to take as experienced by the EU that now has 27 member countries. “It’s a long road for ASEAN to reach that level of integration (like the EU)," said Ledoux in an interview Wednesday during the launching of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s Local Governance Watch watchdog program. Also, the EU ambassador admitted that the eurozone crisis is due to a failure to adopt a “common economic governance policy" that will effectively implement the common currency among the member states. However, he noted that ASEAN trading partners like Vietnam and the Philippines have not been affected by the crisis. Ambassador Ledoux said that the EU-Philippines bilateral trade has remained ‘flat’ at €9.1 billion for 2010 to 2011. But the reason is not to be blamed on the weak economic performance of EU members now experiencing financial turmoil. According to the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines website, Philippine exports of information technology products to the EU decreased by 10 percent with exports of agriculture up by 13 percent. Ledoux also said that despite the lingering financial turmoil in the EU, its total trade with the Philippines increased by six percent. — DVM, GMA News