18 April 2004, Kildare, Ireland – The Philippines and the European Commission (EC) have agreed to step up cooperation as the Philippines and the European Union mark 40 years of relations next month. This agreement was reached during the meeting of Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo Albert and European Commissioner for External Relations Christopher Patten at the sidelines of the 6th Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kildare, Ireland.

“We agreed that there are still many areas of cooperation that we need to explore,” Secretary Albert said. “Commissioner Patten and I agreed that we will boost cooperation between the Philippines and the EC in several fields, including education, inter-faith dialogue and counter-terrorism,” she added. She said that Mr. Patten believed that the Philippine war against terror was succeeding and that the EC was most willing to provide more technical assistance in counter-terrorism, particularly in the areas of terrorist financing and border management, under the EC’s Rapid Response Mechanism project.

The Secretary said that Commissioner Patten had also been closely following the current peace processes in the Philippines. “Mr. Patten expressed confidence and optimism in our peace efforts and said that the European Commission was prepared to provide development assistance to post-conflict areas once peace agreements are concluded. This assistance would be in addition to the development assistance that the European Commission is already providing to the Philippines,” the Secretary said.

During their meeting, the Secretary briefed Commissioner Patten on her current efforts to bring the Muslim women of Mindanao into the mainstream of peace building and conflict resolution. “I described to Mr. Patten my efforts to enlist the Muslim women of Mindanao in efforts to build peace and to prevent and resolve conflict through dialogue,” Secretary Albert said. “Commissioner Patten told me that the European Commission would be most willing to support my initiative. This is one area of cooperation that we can certainly explore and which could be a meaningful contribution to the peace, progress and development of Mindanao,” She added. END.