EU-RP partnership deal will take 2 years - MacDonald

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the European Union might take two years before being realized, an official said Wednesday.

Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of delegation of the European Commission (EC) to the Philippines, said the bilateral deal will need more time before it could be ratified by the EU’s 27-member states.

“Agreements like this usually take time," MacDonald said in a forum in Makati. “But we’ve made significant moves last week."

The PCA will build on and update the existing 1980 EC-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Cooperation Agreement.

It is aimed at establishing a relationship based upon a modern policy agenda with an appropriate institutional framework, and enabling a policy dialogue on a wider range of issues, ranging from economic, scientific and cultural issues to political and social issues such as human rights, counter-terrorism and migration.

Some industry insiders likened the pact to the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) except that the PCA does not include trade agreements.

Last week, the second round of talks between the RP and EU started and both parties agreed for a need to boost protection of legal migrants and counter undocumented migration. The first meeting was made last February 2009.

Another round of negotiations was set for December in Brussels, Belgium.

So far, the Philippines and the EU have only agreed on eight of the 40 articles included in the PCA.

“It’s a long way to go, but I don’t want to rush it," said MacDonald.

He added that both parties have yet to agree on the migration aspect of the deal. He refused to comment further on the issue.

According to an estimate of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), there were more than 953,000 Filipinos are scattered all over Europe as of December 2007. Of the total, 284,987 are permanent residents or immigrants, 555,542 are temporary residents (contract workers), and more than 112,000 are undocumented or overstayers.

Last week, Philippine Ambassador to Brussels Cristina Ortega said the European Committee seems to be opening up their policies for more immigrants since some of the member states are already aging.

Ortega, who attended the press conference at the end of the PCA second round of talks, said Filipinos remain unrivaled in the quality of their service, particularly in the hospitality and health care industries.

“They will be needing the Filipino service very badly in the future," Ortega told GMANews.TV. - JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE, GMANews.TV, 10/14/2009 | 04:29 PM