Brussels, 15/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - On the first day of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Friday 15 July, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for connections between Asia and Europe to be strengthened, and said he wanted the creation of a common framework for research.
“Europe needed Marco Polo's travel tales to learn how rich and sophisticated the Mongolian civilisation was. This legendary character illustrates well what we sometimes owe to this man and to the curiosity he had of the world around him. That is why fostering trade between our citizens is particularly important for me”, Juncker said at a plenary meeting, on Friday, with the leaders of the 51 ASEM countries attending the summit.
“Our university exchange programme Erasmus has contributed greatly to fostering better understanding of Europe's diversity and richness, encouraging openness and tolerance. We should make greater endeavours to do the same at the ASEM level”, he said, calling for mobility to be fostered between Europe and Asia through the Erasmus + and Marie Curie programmes.
“To ensure the transmission of information across an empire that connected the most distant parts of Europe and Asia, the Mongolian people set up the most sophisticated postal system of their time - the imperial Yam post. According to Marco Polo, 3000 km could be covered in a day through the horsemen's relays. Today our techniques have evolved, but the goal remains the same - connectivity to enable the exchange of information and ideas”, Juncker said.
“Connectivity has been at the heart of the European project since the first post-war treaties. Our internal market is the biggest in the world and is a perfect example of connectivity. The desire to interconnect the peoples and countries of Europe led us to remove the borders between us, to harmonise our rules or ensure that the rules that govern our economic activity enjoy mutual recognition and are based on reciprocity. We should take inspiration from this to ensure that the partnership between Europe and Asia is built on the same spirit of openness and reciprocity”, he added.
Juncker called for “the gradual establishment” of a common framework for research, enabling the free movement of scientists and knowledge between the two continents. “Innovation on science and technology is essential in the face of the challenges that demographic expansion throws at us”, he said. Faced with the challenge of climate change, he underlined the importance of the EU's Asi@Connect platform and its programmes for adapting to and mitigating climate change, for the management of water resources and for weather forecasting. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)