22nd EU – Japan Summit. Brussels, 7 May 2014

On 7 May in Brussels, Herman Van Rompuy i, President of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso i, President of the European Commission, will meet Japanese Prime Minister Abe for the twenty second summit meeting between the European Union and Japan.

The Summit is the culmination of a nine-day visit of Prime Minister Abe to six EU Member States. The ongoing twin negotiations for a Strategic Partnership Agreement and a Free Trade Agreement, launched in April 2013, will be at the centre of the Summit's agenda. While the former covers political dialogue, cooperation in addressing regional and global challenges and sectoral cooperation, the latter aims to promote further bilateral trade and investment flows, unlocking new growth and employment opportunities. Once concluded, these agreements are to provide a solid foundation for the further strengthening of the EU-Japan relationship. The Summit will review progress in the negotiations and add impetus to the respective processes.

The Summit should also give political momentum to closer cooperation on security issues. The EU and Japan are seeking to engage in concrete cooperation related to ongoing EU crisis management missions and operations, notably in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, a further step in a closer security partnership between the two sides. The Summit will moreover promote already close sectoral cooperation, in areas such as cyber security, research and innovation and energy.

The Summit will finally constitute an opportunity to exchange views on key regional and global issues where there is already a high degree of convergence in our respective positions and to identify opportunities for the EU and Japan to work together to address these effectively. Themes include developments in our respective neighbourhoods, the Post-2015 Development Framework, climate change, and the global economy and trade.

President Van Rompuy said: " As like-minded global partners, the EU and Japan bear a joint responsibility for promoting a global economic recovery and a move towards greener, more sustainable growth. Japan's readiness to share a larger part of the burden of international crisis management resonates with the EU's own efforts to be a global provider of security. Building a closer security partnership, we can jointly make a major contribution to peace and security worldwide in full respect of the UN Charter and international obligations."

President Barroso said: " Building on democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and shared principles such as open markets and a rules-based international system, we seek to expand and strengthen our partnership and to face evolving global challenges together. The ongoing negotiations for a strategic partnership agreement and a free trade agreement epitomise our wish to lift our relationship onto a higher, more strategic plane. A comprehensive strategic partnership agreement will provide us with a sound structure for deeper political, global and sectoral cooperation over the coming decades, and an ambitious free trade agreement will unleash the full potential of the trade and economic relationship between the EU and Japan, the world's first and fourth economies."

For more information

EU relations with Japan: http://eeas.europa.eu/japan/index_en.htm

Contacts :

Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen (+32 2 295 30 70)

Alejandro Ulzurrun ( +32 2 295 48 67)

Maja Kocijancic (+32 2 298 65 70)

Dirk De Backer (+32 2 281 9768)

Eamonn Prendergast (+32 2 299 88 51)

For the public:

Europe Direct by phone 0080067891011 or by e­mail