Czech Business Today
Deeper Cooperation Confirmed at EU-Korea Summit
At the beginning of November, Brussels hosted the seventh EU-Korea summit which marked 50 years of mutual relations. As mentioned by both President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on the EU side and by President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun-hye, the relationship has rather transformed into a strategic partnership over the years.
Recently, the importance has further strengthened by the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) coming into force in 2011, the first EU FTA with an Asian partner. The FTA was one of the topics dealt with during the summit as well. As the EU welcomed its 28th member earlier in July, both partners decided to include Croatia in the FTA. According to expectations, the new member should increase Korean exports to the EU by approximately 7 million EUR and imports by 1.5 million EUR over the next 5 years. Furthermore, leaders of both parties committed themselves to find solutions to the issues identified during the two years of FTA in place, especially in the field of automotive and financial services. To further foster mutual cooperation, both sides agreed to establish a bilateral high-level dialogue on industrial policy next year, which would be held on a regular basis. In addition, EU and Korea agreed to cooperate more closely in the field of innovation and research, especially in the areas as nanotechnology, ICT, communication network or cloud computing.
The cooperation should be facilitated through the Korea Research and Innovation Centre – Europe, which has been recently opened and also thanks to signing of the agreement that should facilitate hosting of Korean researchers in Europe. In addition, cultural cooperation and exchange of students will be fostered through EU-Korea Committee on Cultural Cooperation and Korea-EU Joint Declaration on Higher Education Cooperation. As for the relations with the North Korea, European leaders expressed their support behind their partner in the matter of denuclearization.
