The Diplomat
This past Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the ad referendum signing of the framework agreements for Collaboration and Cooperation between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and the Governments of Malaysia and Thailand.
Since 1980, EU-ASEAN bilateral relations have been articulated through the EEC-ASEAN Cooperation Framework Agreement. At the beginning of this century, the EU decided to deepen and modernize its relations with the different countries in the region, launching parallel negotiations on Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (CCA).
The EU and Malaysia signed this ACC at the EU-ASEAN Summit held in Brussels on December 14, 2022. The signature by EU Member States took place previously, on the margins of COREPER II. On behalf of Spain, the Ambassador Permanent Representative to the EU signed the Agreement ad referendum on November 30 of that year.
As it is a mixed agreement, EU Member States must ratify it in accordance with their respective internal procedures. So far, the Agreement has been ratified by Germany, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Latvia.
On the other hand, negotiations with Thailand, paralyzed as a result of the 2014 military coup, ended in 2022, after the political normalization of EU-Thailand relations. As in the case of Malaysia, the EU and Thailand signed this ACC at the EU-ASEAN Summit in December 2022 and the signature by EU Member States took place on the margins of COREPER II.
This agreement, which is the first of a bilateral nature negotiated between the EU and Thailand, expands the framework of the EEC-ASEAN Agreement of 1980, allowing the deepening of cooperation in numerous areas (human rights, migration, sustainable development, etc.) and reinforcing the geostrategic profile and the EU’s capacity for influence at a global level.
Within this framework, the Council authorized the signing of both Collaboration and Cooperation framework agreements between the EU and its Member States, on the one hand, and the Governments of Malaysia and Thailand, on the other, as well as their referral to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament) and the manifestation of Spain’s consent to be bound by said agreements.
