SPEECH 09 MAY 2016

Dr. Michael Pulch

Remarks by Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to

Europe Day Reception, Raffles Hotel Singapore, 9 May 2016

250 North Bridge Road, #38-03/04 Raffles City Tow er, Singapore 179101

Telephone: +65 6336 7919 Fax: +65 6336 3394 Email: [email protected]

Your Excellency, Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Ministry of Finance,

Members of Parliament, Mr Kwek Hian Chuan and Mr ,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to mark Europe Day 2016 in this historic bar room of the Raffles Hotels. This location symbolises the long established European roots in this country – and one of the long drinks created here, the Singapore sling is still the signature drink for Singapore.

But our links are not just a matter of a nostalgic past.

In fact, just 2 hours ago I joined FM Balakrishnan and my German colleague Michael Witter to celebrate the groundbreaking for a new German European School in Singapore - We invest here so that future generations of European families can live, work and study here.

Also today in a symbolic act Singapore airlines will fly its first operating A350 airbus to Amsterdam.

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I. 2015 was a good year for EU-Singapore relations

Also last year Singapore remained the EU's most important economic partner in ASEAN and is now amongst the top 12 globally when trade in goods and services are taken together.

Vice versa, latest combined Singstat figures put the EU as Singapore's overall largest trading partner for goods and services.

Arguably, even more impressive is the EU's position as the country's top investor here with an investment stock of over 100 billion €. This makes Singapore one of our top 10 EU investment destinations.

Just last month for instance Airbus together with Singapore airlines inaugurated its largest training facility worldwide at Changi.

Singapore herself is a major investor in Europe. This is why Commission Vice President Katainen launched the global 'Invest in Europe' campaign here in September.

We are also working towards internationalizing our small and medium sized companies. Two weeks ago Minister Iswaran witnessed the opening of the Europe Enterprise Network (EEN) Singapore Centre, the first self-financed SME support centre in South East Asia. It gives Singaporean and European SMEs access to business partnership opportunities in Europe and here. [By the way Minister Iswaran will also be the guest of honour at the annual Eurocham Europe day luncheon on Friday.]

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We will boost commercial links through the EU Business Avenues programme. We will start the project during the Singapore International Water Week on 11 July. Over the next five years, we will bring 1000 SMEs in seven sectors on trade missions to Singapore and the region.

We are also creating a better legal framework for our companies. Following the conclusion of the EU-Singapore FTA, we initialled last year an agreement with Vietnam and opened new negotiations with the Philippines; Indonesia may follow soon.

On the political side, relations between Singapore and the EU continue to thrive.

HRVP Mogherini attended the Shangri-La dialogue to discuss some of our pressing issues:

She also presented the EU's outreach to ASEAN. Singapore stands to benefit significantly from our offer to expand the relationship with the region across the board.

II. The EU's main objectives for this year

2016 marks a year that further consolidates economic growth in the EU - despite some headwinds for the global economy.

Abroad, the EU shows it is an essential actor – the conclusion of the Iranian nuclear negotiation, led by High Representative Mogherini, is a case in point.

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Efforts intensify to end the civil war in Syria and to push back the militant ISIS terrorists. This is also the root cause of refugee flows to Europe.

Closer to Singapore, the EU has supported Myanmar's democratization process that offers prospects for the future.

ASEAN is deepening its regional economic integration with the Asean Economic Community. This strengthens the case for a future region-to-region FTA.

But both Europe and Asia face important trans-national challenges.

In response to terrorist acts in the midst of our cities we have strengthened our cooperation on terrorism and organized crime. For instance, Europol has detached personnel to the new global Interpol center in Singapore and a major conference on cyber-security in autumn here will discuss counter measures across geographical boundaries.

On migration, the EU is funding an EU-ASEAN Migration and Border Management Programme that provides technical assistance to border police services.

The Paris Climate Change Conference in December, agreed on a universal, ambitious and legally binding Climate Agreement. This is a major step forward. We now need to ensure proper implementation and count on Singapore to be a strong partner in this endeavour. We will organise two events here on climate change - on finance and aviation - to support this goal.

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These challenges will test our collective resilience – but they will also help the EU and Singapore forge even closer ties.

III. This brings me to my last point: How do we want to use the momentum in our relations to advance further:

The 20th anniversary summit of ASEM will provide an excellent occasion for our leaders to address some of the urgent issues. A newly launched European Parliament Group of Friends of Singapore will enhance contacts between both legislative bodies.

Our trade ties will benefit from enhancing market access through programmes such as the Business Avenues.

After a successful meeting of EU-ASEAN transport ministers in Singapore we will work for a future negotiation of a region-to- region air liberalisation agreement.

People-to-people contacts are key in any relationship. Study in Europe reinforces educational links and will return with its 10th edition this autumn.

Not to forget culture: The 26th European Film Festival, the biggest ever, will kick-off tomorrow with 30 films – have a look for yourself, we show the trailers here. And take your booklet.

We are helped in our undertakings by a number of actors here.

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The EU Centre in Singapore, the Asia Europe Foundation, Eurocham and the EU-ASEAN Business Council are all supporting us to raise greater awareness about Europe.

EuroCham will hold a Schuman lecture on June 6 featuring former ECB Vice President Christian Noyer.

Enough said. To mark this day we present Europe's diverse cuisines and beverages. My heartfelt thanks go to my fellow European Ambassadors for their generous support.

Your Excellencies, friends, may I ask you to join me - after the Singapore National anthem - in a toast to the health of the President of the Republic of Singapore, Dr. Tony Tan.

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