EU, Philippines initial new partnership agreement

The European Union and the Philippines on Friday initialed the text of a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), following negotiations early this month.

The formal signature of the agreement will follow later this year, once necessary procedures have been completed on both sides.

The text was initialed by the two chief negotiators, European Commission's Asia Director James Moran and the Philippine Ambassador to the EU, Enrique Manalo.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton welcomed the agreement.

“This agreement is the first-ever bilateral comprehensive agreement between the two sides. The agreement will give us a framework which is fit-for-purpose for the 21st century," she said.

It will strengthen considerably the dialogue, cooperation and action across the whole spectrum of bilateral relations, specifically in the political domain, on trade and investment, justice and security, migration as well as on economic and development issues, according to Ashton.


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