Brussels, 08/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Union and the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) are to hold a ministerial meeting on Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 December in Vientiane in Laos, in the presence of fourteen ministers (only four of whom are European) and neither of the two Commissioners responsible for external relations. The meeting, the first since 1997, will be more symbolic than substantial, above all marking the resumption of ministerial dialogue that had been broken off after the refusal by Europeans to sit with Burma.
The Foreign Ministers Joshka Fischer (Germany), Louis Michel (Belgium), Erki Tuomioja (Finland) and Lydie Polfer (Luxembourg) confirmed their presence alongside their ASEAN counterparts, of whom there are now ten following the successive accessions by Burma, Laos and Cambodia. The European Commission will be represented by the head of the planning division of the Directorate General for External Relations, Gérard Depayre, and the French Council Presidency by Deputy Minister for Cooperation Charles Josselin. The other Member States will send vice-ministers or secretaries of State (Netherlands, United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Sweden) or senior officials (Austria, Denmark, Spain).
This low level of representation is "normal for this kind of meeting", which above all comes the day after the European Summit of Nice, it is stressed in Brussels. Some Asian countries expressed concern and cast doubt on how appropriate it is to hold the meeting during the preparation process which has also been hampered by questions such as the limited access foreseen by the Laotian authorities for the foreign press. "We hope this problem will be resolved", stressed one European diplomat. Regarding Burma, ASEAN had posed the participation of their partner as an essential condition for the meeting with the Union. "We have agreed to have a political dialogue for initiating a better debate", it was explained in Brussels. The Burma issue will be raised by the Europeans during the meeting and could be mentioned in the final declaration - but, it is asked, "to what degree and in what terms?" The Union, at any rate, should announce the "willingness of the presidential troika (Portugal, France, Sweden) to go to Burma". Furthermore, it trusts, among other things, it will be able to float in Vientiane a common appeal in favour of launching a multilateral trade round "as soon as possible" on the basis of a "broad and balanced agenda".