European Union

The eighth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) will be held in Brussels on 4-5 October 2010. The European Union remains committed to pursuing its collaboration with Asia and to strengthening its partnership with ASEM member countries. This year meeting will be attended by new members – Australia, New Zealand and Russia.

At the summit, the EU will be represented by Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.

The overarching theme of the summit is how to ensure greater prosperity and more dignity for all citizens, in short, "Quality of Life".

The work will start on Monday, 4 October with the subject identified as priority number one, moving towards more effective global financial and economic governance. A separate declaration entitled "Towards more effective global economic governance" is expected to be adopted at the end of the summit.

The other topics on the agenda include advancing on the path of sustainable development, discussions on global issues such as the fight against terrorism and organized crime, the elimination of acts of piracy at sea and the reversal of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and regional issues. The leaders will also discuss developments and security issues of concern to ASEM partners such as Iran, Afghanistan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Myanmar, or the Middle East peace process.

On the side of the ASEM 8, a parliamentary partnership meeting, a business forum, a people's forum and a civil society event will take place.

Background
Asia-Europe Meeting is a forum for dialogue between Europe and Asia which involves virtually the whole of the two continents. The 48 ASEM partners represent half of the world’s GDP, almost 60% of the world’s population and 60% of global trade.

ASEM complements and does not replace Europe's bilateral relations and negotiations with Asian countries.

As one of the four 'coordinators' of ASEM, the European Commission underpins the process.

For more information: http://www.eeas.europa.eu/asem/index_en.htm