Asean
It won't be like EU
Charter drafter says Europe is just an inspiration, not a model. Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Mar 22, 2007

By Veronica Uy
Unlike the European Union (EU), the 10 member-states of Asean will not surrender their economic sovereignty and create a supranationalist body, the principal writer of the regional bloc’s draft charter said.

In an interview, Ambassador Rosario Manalo, head of the High-Level Task Force on the Asean charter, said the EU is "only a reference and an inspiration, but not a model."

"Asean will operate purely on intergovernmental action. There would be no element of supranationalism because there is no surrender of economic sovereignty.

"We cannot create a community similar to that of EU. The EU carries both intergovernmental and supranational actions", she said.

This aspect of the Asean as a rules-based organisation was proposed by the Eminent Persons Group and was approved by the heads of state during the 12th Asean Summit in Cebu in January.

She explained the creation of such a rules-based community was one of the objectives of the 12th Asean Summit and that the charter is the beginning of this realisation.

Concretely, she said, the economic ministers so far have defined Asean as a free trade area, where market integration means closer cooperation and multilateral action on trading matters and investments.

"This is an inter-governmental action, the result of negotiations", she explained.

"They [Asean leaders] decided that the rule would be intergovernmental and therefore rules-based. No state would want to surrender its sovereignty", she said.

The ambassador said Asean would operate more like the United Nations, whose members are obliged to comply with the treaty creating the body.

Manalo has just arrived from Nuremberg, where EU and Asean foreign ministers asked her for updates on the Asean charter.

"In the case of EU, they have exercised the political will to carry beyond just intergovernmentalism and carried out supranationalism through the adoption of the European law", she explained.

"In the case of Asean, the political will stopped at just having intergovernmental [agreements]. The law that will be followed are the provisions of the treaty, the provisions of the treaty is law", she added.

Manalo said that apart from the Asean charter, protocols for the specific provisions of the charter will be fleshed out.

The first draft would be submitted to the Asean foreign ministers meeting in July and is targeted to be signed by the leaders in November.
Philippine Enquirer.