Brussels, 19/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - After the 20th session of ministerial consultations between the European Commission and Australia, on 18 May in Brussels, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and European Commissioners for External Relations and Development, Chris Patten and Poul Nielson, as well as EU Trade Commissioner Danuta Hübner (attached to Pascal Lamy), said in a joint declaration that they were pleased with progress made in the implementation of the "ambitious work programme" given in the EU/Australia cooperation agenda adopted last year. Commissioners and the minister, who note their exchange of views has intensified on international and security issues, mainly discussed recent developments in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, North Korea and the Asia-Pacific region. They discussed the fight against terrorism and the development of "regional capacity to tackle the root causes" of terrorism. They agreed that intelligence sharing will be increasingly crucial in this context. They also welcomed consolidation of their dialogue on development cooperation and promotion of stability and good governance in the Pacific (the declaration cites the contribution made to reconstruction of East Timor and the Solomon Islands). The declaration stresses how important it is to continue high level regular contacts and the Commission welcomes the invitation to Commissioner Prodi to go to Australia as soon as possible.
Both parties also tackled reactivation of the Doha Development Agenda while, on the subject of bilateral trade issues, they say they hope to soon settle the outstanding questions concerning an agreement on wine (according to the declaration, negotiations had made "good progress"). The agreement had been signed in 1994, it being understood that both parties will continue to work especially on issues such as the gradual phasing out of the use of certain geographic names by Australia. Exports of Australian wine to the EU increased in 2002 by 12% compared to 2001, and this growth should continue.
Finally, the declaration speaks of strengthening existing cooperation in the field of education, science and technology and specifies that negotiations are under way on civil aviation, and that consultations are ongoing on cooperation concerning the satellite navigation system Galileo. Furthermore, both parties agreed to strengthen cooperation as far as the environment is concerned, and will carry out a number of bilateral cooperation projects on climate change.
During the final press conference, Mr Downer welcomed the recent Commission proposals to rid itself of farm export subsidies in the context of WTO negotiations. "If this could be accepted by other countries and … to be quite honest, this could be accepted by the United States, it would be something we would greatly appreciate", he said, recalling that "historically, we have not always been on the same wavelength as the EU on international farm trade". Mr Patten, on the other hand, was mainly asked about EU assistance to Australia's efforts to re-establish "better institutions" in the Solomon Islands, a theme evoked over lunch with Mr Nielson also.