45 years of EU–Laos partnership
EU Ambassador Ms Ina Marčiulionytė
The road to 2020
The Lao PDR has many important anniversaries in 2020 – the most important one, of course, being the National Day celebration next month to mark 2 December 1975. In an interesting turn of historic events, the relations between the EU and Laos were established few weeks before this event, on 21 November 1975 when the European Commission agreed to the proposal of the of the Embassy of Laos in Paris.
Things looked a lot different back in the November of 1975: the European Union was still the European Communities, and the Lao PDR was still the Kingdom of Laos, but the will of both peoples to reach out to each other was already present. The world, Laos and the EU have indeed changed a lot in the past 45 years. The EU has grown to 27 Member States from only 9 who formed the European Communities in 1975 and the Lao PDR has made huge leaps in its socioeconomic development.
The cooperation between us has picked up significantly in the last two decades after the signing of the Cooperation Agreement on 1997: the intent to deepen the institutional relations was reflected in the accreditation of the first permanent Lao ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, H.E. Mr Sompadith Vorasane in 1998, and the opening of the European Commission Delegation in Lao PDR in Vientiane in 2003. Since 2016, the European Union has a-fledged Diplomatic Mission led by an Ambassador in recognition of the growing ties with Laos.
European Union as a Partner in Development
Support to the development agenda of the Lao PDR has long been in the focus of our attention: in the past 20 years, the European Union in various projects in Laos has disbursed approximately 2,8 trillion LAK; combined with the bilateral support of the European Union Member States, the value of the European assistance has been 9,25 [VC(1] billion LAK in the last 10 years alone. The European Union has been a reliable partner of the Laos’ socioeconomic development agenda, including the Laos’ commitment towards the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 and its ambition to graduate from the LDC status. In achieving this, the European Union and its Member States and Switzerland have worked closely in coordinating the efforts as one team under the European Joint Programming umbrella, greatly improving the efficiency of our assistance and deepening the policy dialogue that we highly value.
The European Union has been implementing an ever-growing development programme with projects in many sectors. Projects and budget support for education, nutrition and health have been of particular importance as these crucial elements of the human capital development. Not less important is the work we have done jointly with the Government and civil society partners in the economic governance and rule of law. Our partnership also extends to clearance of UXOs, agriculture; food and nutrition security, improvement of the private sector, and biodiversity and heritage protection only to mention few.
The European Union has also been there to assist Laos in the times of sudden and critical needs arising from emergencies. The European Union reacted quickly to the COVID19 pandemics by supporting the Government’s response, including purchasing health equipment, developing digital education, launching hygiene awareness campaigns, and increasing our budget support. More recently, we have allocated LAK2.2 billion to address the community needs in the most affected areas in southern Laos that were ravaged after the severe flooding in October.
Many Lao nationals, among them high-ranking officials, have studied in Europe and continue to hold a dear and personal relationship with our continent. The people-to-people connections are a vital part of our partnership, helping us to understand each other better. We certainly want to continue nourishing them, especially though the Erasmus Plus programme through which we have given more than 400 scholarships for Lao students to study and participate in the academic exchanges in Europe.
Towards a full and comprehensive partnership
However, it should be underlined that the partnership between the European Union and Laos is double-tracked, consisting of not only the development cooperation but also political dialogue. Our leaders have regular exchanges of views, including in various multilateral events, notably in the EU-ASEAN and ASEM cooperation framework. In this regard, the European Union is a steadfast supporter of the ASEAN integration and closer cooperation between our regional organisations in a number of strategically important areas, extending from trade to political dialogue and security issues. Inevitably then, that the European Union cooperation goals with the ASEAN encompass support also to Laos to be a strong and capable member of its regional family. Bilaterally, last year witnessed the visit of the European Commissioner for Development and International Cooperation Mr Neven Mimica to Laos. There are also regular EU–Lao PDR dialogues in the Joint Committee framework on Trade, Development and Human Rights.
This time now is critical juncture for both Laos and the European Union: the Government has set out to formulate the 9th NSEDP for 2021-2025, and at the same time, the European Union and the European development partners have embarked on the joint programming of our external assistance for 2021-2025. We are engaging in discussions with the Government as friends and partners about the best ways forward in assisting Laos to reach its development targets with an aim to achieve the best possible synergy between the European Union development programme and the Lao national development strategy.
Addressing the modern challenges together: strength in unity
Undeniably, the COVID-19 crisis this year has severely affected all countries of the world, disrupted the personal lives of millions of people and made governments readjust their macroeconomic plans. Thanks to a decisive and swift action by the Government to stop the spread, Laos has not been affected directly by the virus but the indirect effects of the international lockdown measures on the national economies can potentially be even more disruptive. It is therefore essential to rebuild back better and in a sustainable and green approach across all sectors.
Looking ahead, there are many opportunities that we look forward to explore together with the Lao Government, the Member States and our partners, in continuation to work on the foundations that we have already established – such as in the areas of governance or education (including digital education) – as well as to access and make use of the full potential of new areas of cooperation. One such domain is our bilateral trade relations – as a Least Developed Country Laos enjoys tariff-free trade with the European Union, the so-called Everything But Arms regime. Yet Laos can offer much more valuable products that are interesting and in demand by the European consumers than currently are being exported. We are therefore looking into the possibility to strengthen the support to coffee farmers and wood producers as the initial sectors for increasing the economic cooperation. Along with trade, we look forward to working with the Government of Laos to help improve the Ease of Doing Business ranking – a crucial indicator that is necessary to successfully attract more European investments to Laos and prepare for the transition to GSP+ trade regime once Laos graduates from the Least Developed Country group.
Climate change and biodiversity protection will inevitably be dominating themes in the next decades. The European Union and its Member States have embarked on the Green Deal with a set of initiatives to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. This is, however, a global challenge that cannot be tackled by Europeans alone. The Government of Laos has already acknowledged the importance of the green direction as a guiding principle of the socioeconomic development and committed to the Green Growth Strategy of the Lao PDR to 2030. On our end, the European Union with the Member States and Switzerland are preparing to support these ambitions though our new Team Europe Green Initiative that will focus the support of the European partners in areas which have a high potential for climate-adaptation and mitigation action, sustainable socio-economic development, private sector development, job creation, sustainable tourism, international and regional trade and for addressing key governance issues such as workers’ rights, women and youth economic empowerment, land management and business obstacles.
I am very glad to have arrived in Laos now and to be present as we jointly prepare to open a new chapter in the relations between the European Union and Laos. I would like to wish prosperity, growth, happiness and health to the people of Laos and the President Bounnhang Vorachit!