Eu Singapore Political Cooperation Agreement

3. Welcomes cooperation in the areas of `human-to-human links`, the information society, audiovisual and media, educational and cultural exchanges, employment and social affairs, health and statistics which will help assess the progress of the agreement; Trade and investment agreements between the EU and Singapore were approved today by the European Parliament. Parliament has also given the green light to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. According to an opinion of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, the initial AEE was a so-called joint agreement. The opinion was requested by the European Commission, which asked whether the EU institutions were the only ones entitled to conclude the agreement without the Member States being contracting parties. [8] The Court`s opinion led the European Commission to divide the agreement into a free trade agreement and an investment protection agreement. 18. Is concerned that climate change will have a significant impact on Singapore and the ASEAN region; welcomes Singapore`s positive contribution to the Milennium`s development goals and sustainable development goals; welcomes Singapore`s ratification of the Paris Agreement on 21 September 2016 and hopes that Singapore will meet its targets for reducing emissions by 2030; aims to cooperate with Singapore and ASEAN to accelerate the implementation of the Paris climate agreement; stresses the need to help Singapore and other ASEAN countries improve the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity, particularly coral reefs, and the systematic restoration of forest ecosystems; welcomes Singapore`s role in the regional issue of reducing deforestation; urges the promotion of cooperation between the European Union and Singapore to effectively combat forest fires and to introduce more environmentally friendly technologies for transport and buildings; Similar agreements were signed with Indonesia in 2009 and with Vietnam and the Philippines in the summer of 2012 and are being negotiated with Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei as part of the EU`s total commitment to Southeast Asia. The agreement is expected to be the first free trade agreement with a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the third with an Asian country after South Korea and Japan from the EU`s point of view. Singapore is the EU`s 14th largest trading partner. Negotiations on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement began in 2005 and High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini and her counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore`s Foreign Minister, signed the agreement on the sidelines of the ASEM summit on 19 October 2018.