Asia-Europe Meeting, Milan (Italy)
ASEM was set up in 1996 as a joint initiative of the European Union and the ASEAN countries (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) as a forum for dialogue and cooperation between Asian and European nations to strengthen relations between the two regions and to tackle various issues of special international importance. It has a flexible and open nature and thus does not have permanent institutions.
The ASEM Summit of Heads of State and Government meets every other year, alternating between Asia and Europe. The Milan Summit is the tenth such summit. The previous summit was held in Laos in 2012 and the next will be held in Mongolia in 2016, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the forum. Those years in which a summit is not held, there is a meeting of the foreign affairs ministers of all the member countries.
The members of ASEM from Europe include the 28 Member States of the EU, plus Switzerland and Norway, and from Asia the 10 members of ASEAN plus the countries from the NESA group (North East-South Asia): Australia, Bangladesh, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Russia. In addition Europe is represented by the European Commission and Council, and Asia is represented by the Secretariat-General of ASEAN. At this Milan Summit, Croatia and Kazakhstan have joined the European and Asian contingents respectively, to bring the total number of members to 51.
ASEM is structured on three main pillars: political, economic-social and cultural-educational. There has traditionally been a marked imbalance in favour of the political pillar; however, the Italian Presidency has imposed a marked economic component to this summit with the idea of placing greater emphasis on this area.
At this edition, the agenda of the summit revolves around two plenary sessions and an "aside":
- Issues relating to economic and financial cooperation will be tackled at the first plenary session.
- The second meeting will tackle global affairs: climate change, post-2015 agenda, human rights, reduction and disaster risk management and socio-cultural cooperation.
- The "aside" format will be used for the first time at this ASEM Summit. This is a forum for informal and open debate at which the participants will deal with the most important common international current affairs.
Finally, the intention to sign a document - the Final Declaration of the Presidency - is planned at this summit, which will set out the main issues debated at the various meetings.
EFE/Archivo