Press Conference: Julia Gillard with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso emphasised the new phase of closer cooperation between Australia and the European Union (EU), during bilateral talks in Canberra on 5 September 2011.
Prime Minister Gillard and President Barroso underlined the shared values and strong cultural, historical and people-to-people links between Australia and Europe. They also noted the depth of the economic relationship, with EU Member States as a group being Australia’s largest source of foreign investment and EU companies creating some 500,000 jobs in Australia. They affirmed the commitment of Australia and the EU to work together on major global challenges and to cooperate in international forums such as the UN, the G20 and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
They pledged to strengthen and position the Australia-EU partnership for the long term. To that end, they looked forward to starting negotiations in the very near future on a broad-ranging, treaty-level bilateral agreement, noting this would provide an overarching framework for joint action in areas such as foreign and security policy, development cooperation, trade and investment, climate change and environment, research, science, innovation and education.
The content above from the originating party/author(s) may be of a point-in-time nature and edited for style and length. The views and opinions expressed are those of the original author(s). View original.
AusPol.co Disclaimer