Friday, January 07, 2011

EU's Taiwan head to be posted in the Philippines

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Guy Ledoux, the European Union's (EU's) representative to Taiwan, will be finishing his four-year term before the end of the month and then head on to the Philippines, Ledoux confirmed in an interview with the Central News Agency Friday.

Before moving to his new posting, the diplomat on Friday celebrated the EU's decision to grant Taiwan visa waiver status with President Ma Ying-jeou in a ceremony hosted by the Presidential Office.

The visa exemption for Republic of China (Taiwan) passport holders to the Schengen area countries and others on its periphery is scheduled to take effect Jan. 11.

Ledoux, who assumed his post in Taiwan in March 2007, said the visa waiver was among the major achievements in the development of EU-Taiwan relations over the past four years and was probably the one thing that most people will remember.

But a number of other achievements were also worth mentioning, he said.

"The EU has been more proactive in terms of expressing its views on cross-Strait relations and Taiwan in recent years, " he said, adding that the bloc's goal is to have a common foreign policy to express its view on various issues in the international arena.

For example, the EU has issued statements on the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement -- a trade pact between Taiwan and China -- the visa-waiver policy, and Taiwan's elections, he said.

On the economic and trade front, the EU and Taiwan have nearly resolved a major trade dispute on compulsory licensing, he said, and he expected Taiwan's accession to the Government Procurement Agreement to be beneficiary to both sides.

Another major step forward was the opening in 2009 of an EU Center to promote awareness of the economic and political union of 27 European countries, Ledoux said.

The EU also extended a helping hand to victims of Typhoon Morakot, a devastating typhoon which killed hundreds of Taiwanese in 2009, including supplies provided by Sweden and Poland, he added.

The diplomat said he was appointed last September by Catherine Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as the EU's representative to Manila, but the posting was not confirmed until the Philippines granted an accreditation in late December.

The posting is a part of the annual rotation of some 130 EU delegations around the world, Ledoux said, with roughly 30 posts changing personnel every year. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls