Barroso: EU en Japan moeten samenwerken op gebied van kennis en onderzoek (en)

José Manuel Barroso

President of the European Commission 

Kobe University

Kobe, 22 April 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen, minasama, konichiwa!

Although I have visited your country before whilst Foreign Minister of Portugal, this is my first visit to Kansai, and my first visit to the country as President of the European Commission.

So I am delighted to be here in Kobe University, whose reputation for excellence is confirmed by your leading role in the consortium of three distinguished universities, Kobe, Kwansei Gakuin, and Osaka to establish the EU Institute in Japan, Kansai. And as one of Japan's greatest ports, Kobe makes a native of Lisbon feel at home!

Links between Japan and Portugal stretch back to the 16th century, when we were the first European nation to make contact with Japan and receive Japanese visitors. In fact my previous visit to Japan was to mark the 450th anniversary of the first Portuguese contacts with Japan. Perhaps you could say we were ahead of the curve in promoting the People to People exchanges which were a major feature of EU-Japan activities last year!

Those trading links still form the basis of the broader EU-Japan relationship. As one of the first Japanese cities to open to the west in the late 19th century, Kobe knows that more than most.

Today though, relations between the EU and Japan cover so much more. As the EU has developed and expanded its responsibilities, the EU-Japan relationship has grown accordingly.

I am here for the EU-Japan Summit on Monday, when we will discuss with Prime Minister Koizumi not only bilateral trade issues but also the environment, energy, civil aviation and above all science and technology. We will also discuss global issues of mutual interest, like East Asia, development assistance and UN reform.

Indeed the EU's links with Japan have never been stronger, as confirmed by the opening of the EU Institute in Japan, Kansai last year, Japan's second EU institute. 2005 was also the year of people-to-people exchanges, when 1,900 separate events took place, including your University's EU week last October. This was a tremendous contribution to consolidating the friendship and mutual respect between us.

Ties between us are going from strength to strength, not surprising when we are two of the three biggest economies in the world. Together we account for about 40% of the world's GDP and we are each others' main trade and investment partners. Japan is the EU's second economic partner after the US and the EU is the biggest investor in Japan.

Our common values also mean we share an attachment to promoting the rule of law, human rights, democracy and human security around the world.

Yet perhaps, as you listen to me speak, you are wondering whether the EU is still a fit partner for Japan. Students of the EU know last year was a difficult year for us. You will have heard the news about the French "non" and the Dutch "nee" to the Constitutional Treaty. You will have followed the discussions about why it was rejected. And you will have thought about how the constitution could be salvaged and whether it meant the end of the EU.

But, as the saying goes, the EU thrives on crisis.

We certainly got something of a shock to the system, and a strong reminder that our principal task is to focus on what our citizens want.

So we agreed last year, after the "no" votes, to a period of reflection. It seemed right to take some time to reflect on the future and meaning of European Union. But, the period of reflection has not been a period of introspection. On the contrary, we have taken advantage of the pause to reconnect with our citizens' most important concerns - security, stability, prosperity and a stronger EU in the world.

Much of what our citizens fear boils down to one single word: "globalisation". But I believe globalisation is an opportunity, not a threat. It is neither caused nor worsened by the EU. Yet we cannot deny the side-effects of globalisation - companies face new sources of competition, jobs disappear, families and communities are affected.

We are focusing on concrete achievements to show that the EU is part of the solution, not part of the problem. Indeed, the EU is a way of managing the pressures of globalisation and turning it to our advantage.

In the past, it was sometimes the EU's institutional dynamics that created the political consensus. But now the situation is reversed. It is the political dynamics that will create the institutional consensus.

I am convinced that by taking effective action in the areas that matter to Europe's citizens we will generate the support and consensus we need to solve the institutional issues later.

There are certainly many challenges - immigration and demography are causing rapid and not always well-managed changes in European societies; energy security and energy efficiency were thrown into sharp relief by the events in Ukraine and Russia at the beginning of this year; and climate change remains a serious threat to the future of our planet. [On that note, I look forwarding to visiting the "Earth Simulator Centre" in Yokohama tomorrow.]

We have to improve security against threats that know no borders, like international terrorism and global pandemics. We have to tackle issues like growth and jobs by reforming the economy. And we have to modernise Europe's social models in imaginative new ways to make them more sustainable and to meet Europeans' expectations without suffocating economic dynamism.

And, we are getting there. We ended 2005 on a more positive note with an informal summit of the EU's leaders in November which fully endorsed the Commission's call for economic reform and social modernisation.

In December we agreed the EU's budget, the Financial Perspectives, for the period to 2013; no small feat for a Union of 25 countries, all with their own interests and priorities.

And, the positive momentum has been reinforced by our European summit last month, which affirmed our commitment to growth and jobs. The Lisbon Agenda - named for the city in which the EU's member states agreed to focus on making the EU a more dynamic knowledge-based economy - has not been implemented as quickly as we would have liked. So, we have now re-focused attention on the goals related to growth and jobs.

At the recent summit our leaders took decisions in three important areas: business, knowledge and energy. They decided to cut "red tape" for new businesses, because we know businesses, and particularly small and medium size enterprises, create jobs.

They agreed to a European Institute of Technology as a flagship for European excellence in education, research and innovation. We are now working to flesh out the plans and to show how the EIT will be an effective catalyst for knowledge and growth in Europe.

And, they paid particular attention to energy, putting us on track for a real Energy Policy for Europe. We are aiming at the triple goals of sustainable, competitive and secure energy, building on the specific proposals set out in our recent Green Paper.

We have confirmed that we want an open Europe as a response to globalization. And, we have an ambitious but realistic programme for the future.

A stronger EU in the world is also good for our partners, especially a partner like Japan, with which we have a Strategic Partnership. We are already the biggest exporter of goods and services worldwide and international trade plays a key role in the growth of our businesses.

And, our internal market is continuing to expand. Today we are 25 countries and 450 million inhabitants. Very soon, we will decide when Bulgaria and Romania will be ready to join us. Bulgaria's membership will of course expand the number of things we have in common, by adding sumo-wrestling to the list!

Our partners in the Balkans and Turkey are also working towards reform with the prospect of membership in mind.

And, although some of our neighbours to the East and South currently have no perspective of EU membership, we have nevertheless offered them a stake in our internal market as they make progress in economic and political reforms. Ukraine and other countries all benefit from this and other incentives through our new European Neighbourhood Policy. Our objective is to expand the circle of prosperous, stable and secure countries which surround the EU.

We are also increasingly acting around the globe to promote peace and stability, including missions in Aceh, Sudan, Congo, as well as Sri Lanka, where we work side by side with Japan.

So you see, despite our difficulties last year, the EU has not abandoned its global responsibilities, nor faltered in pushing ahead our agenda for increased prosperity and jobs. We are very much open for business, and open for contacts with our friends and partners, open to those, like Japan, who share our values and aspirations.

Of course, many of the challenges we are facing in Europe are also faced by Japan: an ageing population, external competition, reconciling economic growth with environmental and social protection, the absence of natural resources, and so on.

The solutions we have chosen - economic reform and prioritising technology - have much in common. Given these commonalities, and that Japan is such a like-minded country, couldn't we both benefit by working together more often?

Our desire to expand the EU's collaboration with Japan is the very message I have brought to Japan, and which I have discussed with your Prime Minister yesterday and will continue talks on at the Summit on Monday.

That holds true across the board - in foreign policy, in trade and in responding to global challenges, like climate change. But it is particularly true in the field of science and technology. I know that will be the subject of the "EU-Japan Forum on research, technology and innovation" this afternoon.

I find it fitting that Kansai, a veritable hub for research and development, should be hosting this forum. It's also fitting that it should be taking place in a city which was so devastated 11 years ago by one of the world's greatest natural disasters, but which has risen again from the rubble.

A similar renaissance needs to take place in our knowledge. For two partners like the EU and Japan, technology is the key to the future, and working together is vital. We need to give our relationship a new dimension - knowledge cooperation.

For both of us, our future prosperity depends on knowledge. We cannot base our prosperity on primary resources and we do not want to base our prosperity on cheap labour. Knowledge is the only factor where Japan and Europe can be competitive in a global world.

I propose four basic principles for this knowledge renaissance.

• 1) 

  First, increased political cooperation: we need to increase the level of our political cooperation, so as to facilitate the conditions for knowledge cooperation. For some time the political dimension of our cooperation has been weaker than the economic dimension. When we consider how much we have in common and how similar are our approaches, this makes no sense. We must make concerted efforts to deepen political ties.

• 2) 

  Second, open cross-border cooperation in R&D: we must recognise that national protectionism is not a viable strategy for research (nor, I might add, for any other area of the economy). The cost of cutting-edge research projects and infrastructures is too high to be borne by anything other than international cooperation. This is particularly the case in the field of marine, atmospheric and environmental research, but think also of ITER.

It is true that research and innovation are increasingly pivotal to industrial competitiveness, economic growth and jobs. But, we do not live in a zero-sum world, we need to cooperate for everyone's standard of living to rise. A free-flowing and equitable circulation of knowledge, goods, people and ideas is to everyone's benefit.

• 3) 

  Third, strengthening our bilateral ties: since international cooperation is necessary, who better to cooperate than like-minded partners such as the EU and Japan? Concluding the negotiations of the EU-Japan science and technology agreement as soon as possible will be an important step in the right direction.

But, for our cooperation to be effective, we must both be able to contribute, and that means focusing internally on our research potential.

Japan has its 3rd "Science and Technology Basic Plan".

And, the EU has made promoting research a priority through our Lisbon Agenda, the Research Framework programme 2007-2013 and our European Research Area. We have a "3% action plan" to raise research and technological development investment to 3% of GDP by 2010, two-thirds of which should come from private sources. Our European Institute of Technology will also help by integrating efforts on education, research and innovation.

• 4) 

  Finally, establishing networks: to put this enhanced knowledge cooperation into practice we need to adapt it to a knowledge-based economy and society. We need more focused and intensified cooperation between our universities, businesses, research institutions, funding institutions and public administrations. We need to better produce, transmit and exploit knowledge, translating it into economically successful applications, products and services. And, we need to mobilise and coordinate our public policies to optimise the conditions for our knowledge economy, i.e. intellectual property rights, standardisation, taxation and product regulations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have much to do to translate this agenda into action. But, I firmly believe a knowledge renaissance is the key to preserving our fundamental values and standard of living for the future. By working together, Japan and the EU stand the best chance of becoming the vibrant knowledge economies of wealth creation.

The time has come to move our relationship up a gear. Only that way will we realise our mutual ambition of a peaceful, environmentally sustainable and prosperous world for all.

I count on your contribution, as academics, students, scientists and researchers, and as friends of the European Union, to push us in the right direction.

Thank you.

After having received the doctor honoris causa:

President Nogami,

I would like to thank you for the honour you have paid me in offering me an honorary doctorate [mejo hakaze go] from this University, which I am pleased to accept. As you know, academia has always been an important part of my life, and I have always found it extremely enriching to draw from both the world of academia and the world of politics. I thank you again for this kindness, particularly as it further cements the ties between Japan and the EU.