The EU and ASEAN highlight cooperation and scholarship opportunities on ASEAN Day

Recent highlights of EU-ASEAN cooperation include, among others:

• The completion of the EU-ASEAN Migration and Border Management Programme II (EA- MBMP II), which extended Interpol’s I-24/7 global police communications system to 50 transit hubs, and facilitated 89.25 million searches, 302 141 new records, 1012 new cases and 25 arrests during 40 months of operation
• The launch of new flagship programmes supporting economic integration (Enhanced ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU (ARISE Plus)) and EU-ASEAN dialogue in areas of shared policy priorities (Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (E-READI)), including road safety, IUU fishing and the circular economy.
• The soft launch of the ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services and Trade (ASSIST) for Trade in Services, a free online tool, which allows ASEAN businesses to lodge complaints on cross-border trade issues with governments in the region.
• The implementation of sustainable and climate-resilient farming and fisheries projects in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Lao PDR under the ASEAN Farmers’ Organisations Support Programme (AFOSP);
• The launch of the Safe and Fair programme, which aims to improve labour conditions for migrant women in Southeast Asia, and is the first initiative in Asia under the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls;

The Cooperation and Scholarships Day highlighted higher education as one key thematic area of EUASEAN cooperation. Since 2014, more than 5500 students and staff from ASEAN have travelled to Europe on scholarships funded by the EU and its Member States, including the EU’s ERASMUS+ programme, and nearly 3000 students and staff have studied or worked in ASEAN.

A total of 591 scholarships have been awarded by the European Union Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (EU SHARE) programme for short-term study at 32 universities in ASEAN and 10 in Europe. Since 2017, two ASEAN Student Mobility Forums have been convened, which gathered 330 students from all 10 ASEAN Member States, allowing them to discuss important issues regarding student mobility.

ASEAN Member States also offer a range of scholarship opportunities, both publicly- and privatelyfunded, including those implemented through the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Higher Education Development, the ASEAN University Network, and Passage to ASEAN, among others.