Foreign Correspondents Association of Singapore

Member Login

FCA - European Union Lunch

  • 02 Oct 2007
  • Mercury Room, Level 4, Raffles City Convention Center (enter Swissotel Lobby and take escalator to level 4)
  • 1200-1330
  • Free for FCA members, but you must register. (Lunch sponsored by the EU)

This event is for Members only.

Nine Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are visiting Singapore on Tuesday, 2nd October 2007 to investigate the prospects for a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and ASEAN. They would like to have lunch with members of the FCA to discuss their progress on the FTA and other EU-ASEAN issues. THIS IS A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN, FIRST-HAND, OF THEIR PROGRESS. During their two day Singapore visit from 1st to 2nd October 2007 the MEPs will meet with their counterparts from the Singapore Parliament, trade officials and members of the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) to develop their understanding of the issues that will need to be addressed in the FTA negotiations and to hear at first hand a South East Asian perspective on our trade relations. The delegation is being led by Ms Corien Wortmann-Kool, the Committee�s 1st Vice Chair. The information gathered during the visit will feed into a European Parliament report on trade and economic relations with ASEAN which will be prepared by Glyn Ford, one of the delegation members. Since the breakdown of WTO talks in Seattle in 1999, the European Parliament has devoted increasing effort to developing a parliamentary dimension of trade negotiations, seeing this as a means of ensuring that citizens� concerns are transmitted to the trade negotiators and that these negotiators are subject to appropriate democratic scrutiny. The visit and subsequent report form part of this process and reflect the priority the Committee attaches to developing trade relations with this region. Background: The European Parliament�s Committee on International Trade was set up following the 2004 elections. It has established an agreement with the European Commission whereby confidential negotiating documents are made available to a limited number of Members and the Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson or one of his senior officials provides regular in camera briefings on the progress of negotiations. In 2007 the Parliament�s internal rules were changed to allow Committees to travel outside the EU. The fact that the Trade Committee has chosen Singapore and Vietnam for its first visit of this type shows the importance it attaches to ASEAN and the FTA negotiations. Directions to lunch: Mercury Room, Level 4, Raffles City Convention Center Enter Swissotel Lobby and take the escalators to level 4.

There was a problem with your submission.

Errors have been highlighted below.

Thank you for registering with FCA. We will contact you shortly.

- Name cannot be empty
- Email cannot be empty
- Phone cannot be empty
Ok