In Brussels on Thursday 8 September, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop launched an EU-Australia Leadership Forum as a discussion platform for leaders and high-ranking EU and Australian officials, politicians and business leaders, media figures, civil society, think tanks and academia in order to work on new ideas to deepen bilateral relations.
The platform will comprise a Leadership Forum for current leaders and a Leadership Forum for leaders in the making, which will both be held once a year, first on one continent and then on the other. The first Forum will be in Australia in the first half of 2017. It will be accompanied by regular workshops on sector-specific policies, covering issues such as security, counter-terror, trade, education, innovation, migration and development.
"Our relationship with Australia already benefits from high levels of cooperation, as you would expect from close partners", Mogherini stated.
The Leadership Forum will encourage senior and emerging leaders across industries in Australia and the European Union to work together on ideas to further strengthen the Australia-EU relationship and promote close collaboration on addressing global challenges, said Bishop.
Visiting the European Parliament on Thursday morning, Bishop said: "We are to reaffirm Australia’s commitment to deeper, broader more diversified cooperation with the EU".
In April 2015, the EU and Australia concluded talks on a new framework agreement to cover bilateral relations, replacing the 2008 economic partnership agreement.
The two partners began a process in November 2015 to negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement, and a scoping exercise to this effect is expected to be finalised later this year so that talks can begin in 2017, explained Australia’s trade minister, Stephen Ciobo, on Thursday, who is also visiting Brussels. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)