The country of the warm hearted people

On the occasion of my first visit to the Philippines back in 1992, I was struck by the hearty welcome of all my interlocutors whether at the airport or in government offices. At the time I was working for the European Commission and we were mostly involved in development cooperation.

When I returned twenty years later in 2011 as Ambassador of the European Union, although much had changed both in Europe and in the Philippines one thing remained constant: the warm welcome of Filipino people.

In twenty years the European Union had both grown from 12 member States to 28 and become the largest economy in the world with a population of 500 million people. Constantly changing and evolving it was felt, in 2011, that the time had come to establish a European diplomatic service that would complement the diplomatic services of the member States. Designated the European External Action Service, or EEAS for short, its creation widely expanded the responsibilities of the Delegations of the European Union around the world including here in Manila. It has been an honour for me to serve, under this new structure, as the first Ambassador of the European Union to the Philippines.

Much has also changed in the Philippines since my first visit twenty years ago — not least the extensive and ultra-modern urban development in metro Manila, and impressive growth rates reclassifying the Philippines as a middle income country.

My arrival coincided with the beginning of a new administration committed to the pursuit of good governance and stability. The time was ripe for the visit of  EU Senior Officials, something that had not happened since 2006.

EU-Philippines relations were also evolving. Progress had been made in many fields, particularly in the area of trade and development assistance.  Now our first senior officials meeting in December 2011 listed a number of issues to be addressed together in transport, maritime staff and fisheries.

The establishment of efficient channels of communication with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Departments, a frank and open dialogue, the willingness and commitment of the Philippines administration and the EU to find solutions to the issues at stake, enabled us to progressively eliminate all the challenges affecting EU-Philippines relations.

The complete lifting of the EU air ban for all Philippines carriers in June 2015 after the lifting of the ban for Philippines Airlines in 2013 and Cebu Pacific in 2014 represents the culmination of years of efforts and hard work and CAAP deserves special congratulations for this impressive achievement.

Since 2006, the European Union had expressed concern regarding the quality of the seafarers training schools and the report published by the European Union in December 2013 was very alarming. This situation was threatening the recruitment of Filipino seafarers by European shipping lines. The creation of a single administration in charge of the training of the seafarers and the dedication of the leaders of Marina significantly improved the quality of the monitoring of the training system and relieved the concerns of the European Maritime Safety Agency.

In June 2014, The European Union which is at the forefront of the fight against illegal fishing, handed a warning to the Philippines (so called yellow card). At the time, the Philippines Authorities were already conscious of the weakness of the domestic legislation and amendments were being discussed by Congress and Senate. The adoption of those amendments as well as other technical measures convinced the European Union that the issue was being addressed and the warning was lifted in April 2015.

The resolution of these issues illustrates the improvement in governance also noticed by many international organisations like the World Economic Forum, Transparency International and others who every year up-graded the ranking of the Philippines compared with other nations. In the Financial sector, credit rating agencies up-graded the Philippines to “investment grade” as early as 2012, and further improvements were endorsed in the following years.

This string of achievements did not go unnoticed. As the saying goes, one good thing leads to another. In December 2014, the European Union unilaterally granted preferential tariff treatment to the Philippines, eliminating tariffs completely for two thirds of the products exported to the European Union. This measure aims to encourage the Philippines to further diversify its export base and to continue the improvement in governance. It will contribute to the creation of more than 270,000 new jobs in the Philippines in the coming years. Earlier in the same year, the European Union also decided to increase its development cooperation envelope for the Philippines from an average of one billion pesos to P2.3 billion per year for the period 2014 to 2020.

But EU-Philippines economic matters are not the only areas which saw expansion in the last few years. The European Union project is built on establishing peace on the European continent. The EU success in maintaining peace across the 28 member states was given recognition with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. One of the objectives of the European Union external action service is to promote Peace in the world. Putting this into practice, the European Union has, since 2010, been supporting the Mindanao Peace Process, through various diplomatic and development cooperation initiatives, as a sustainable solution is needed to bring further prosperity to the Philippines.

The strengthening of EU-Philippines relations has been consolidated and endorsed by a flurry of bilateral visits. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and three EU Commissioners for cooperation, environment and humanitarian assistance came to spend time in the Philippines. The visit of President Aquino to EU headquarters in Brussels in September last year confirmed the importance of this expanding, mutually beneficial relationship.

As I write to the Filipino people today — looking back over the past four and a half years together with my wife, we cannot help but be amazed at all that has happened during my tenure here. It has been an action packed experience in every sense of the word. The best way to sum up our feelings as we prepare to leave can only be that it has indeed been a great privilege and pleasure to serve in the Philippines. As we enter the plane for the last time we will carry with us in our hearts the warm hearts and happy smiles of the Filipino people that inspired us while here and will continue to inspire us in our mission to serve.

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(Guy Ledoux is the Ambassador of the European Union.)