Brussels, 08/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - European and Asian union representative met up on 7-8 September in Helsinki on the eve of the EU/ASEM summit. At the union summit, Secretary General for the European Trade Union Confederation, John Monks, called for future perspectives to be studied and pointed out that the ETUC had encouraged the unions to take part in the EU/ASEM process. Although union dialogue covers a broad range of subjects, the ETUC stated in a press release that, “ASEM has not succeeded in addressing the main concerns of the peoples of both regions” because it had been unable to “deliver on any promises concerning social coherence, decent work, good governance or respect for human rights” by focusing too much on trade and investment. John Monks asked for “a dialogue mechanism to deal with the social consequences of globalisation that imbeds trade unions in ASEM processes”.