The EU has significantly increased its development cooperation funds for ASEAN for the period 2014-2020. More than €170 million has been earmarked to fund the ongoing and post-2015 ASEAN regional integration agenda — more than doubling the amount for 2007-2013. In addition, the EU has pledged over €3 billion to reduce poverty and address development gaps in low-income ASEAN countries.

Ongoing cooperation programmes cover a multitude of activities:

• The EU supports capacity building for regional economic integration in areas such as trade and transport, harmonisation of standards (ARISE), air transport (AATIP), monitoring and statistics (COMPASS), and the protection of intellectual property rights (ECAP III).
• For socio-cultural connectivity, the EU promotes regional integration in the field of higher education (SHARE), and contributes to strengthening the capacity of ASEAN's emergency management systems. This includes providing support to the ASEAN Coordination Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre) so it can achieve operational excellence in disaster monitoring and emergency response.

The EU also supports the ASEAN bodies in developing their human rights policies (READI Human Rights Facility).

The cooperation agenda for 2014-2020 was agreed at the 21st EU-ASEAN JCC Meeting and focuses on three sectors:

1. Connectivity: sustainable and inclusive economic integration

2. Climate change, environment and disaster management 

3. Comprehensive Dialogue Facility

More info:

Summary of EU cooperation with ASEAN: ongoing projects, decided projects and pipeline projects (status as of Dec 2018)

Latest projects