The European Union remains committed to boosting its ties with the Philippines in the coming year, EU Ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen said.
Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s cursing on the EU for raising concerns over the high number of drug suspects killed by police and vigilantes amid his bloody war on illegal drugs, the EU said it would continue to support the Philippines on all fronts.
Jessen noted that the country’s “economic growth, rapid domestic and external transformation” continue to attract European countries to maintain its relations with the Philippines.
The EU ambassador specifically cited the Philippines’ 7.1-percent growth in gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2016, the first three months of the Duterte administration.
“The development in the Philippines continue to attract attraction in Europe,” he said in an open letter posted on EU Facebook page on Friday, November 18. “This said many other aspects of work continue as before.”
In his post, Jessen shared that he returned to Brussels in Belgium to work on developing further EU relations with the Philippines, which will chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2017.
“The time was well spent, taking stock of where we are, how do we best further develop the relationship and also allowing for some deeper discussions about next year,” he said.
Jessen recognized ASEAN is where a “significant part of the EU-Philippines agenda is firmly anchored,” citing for instance the EU-ASEAN Biodiversity Center in Los Baños, Laguna that aims to protect and preserve the Philippines’ rich biodiversity.
Just last week, Jessen said European Commission director general Henrik Hololei was in Manila to discuss the ASEAN and EU aviation agreement.
“It is another illustration of the broad agenda between us,” the ambassador noted.
The post EU Envoy Assures Strong Ties With PH appeared first on Manila Bulletin.
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