EU, Philippines eye possible agreement on counter-terrorism

MANILA, Philippines — The European Union (EU) and the Philippine government are eyeing to sign a possible agreement on counter-terrorism, an EU official said Friday.

Pedro Serrano, Deputy Secretary-General for Common Security and Defense Policy and Crisis Response of EU’s European External Action Service, revealed that they have been in talks with Philippine officials about the possible agreements on counter-terrorism and cyber-related issues.

“We’ve been discussing with Philippine officials this past couple of days possible areas where we could cooperate including counter-terrorism and cyber-related issues,” Serrano said in his presentation at the Mabini Dialogue series.

The EU and the Philippines recently signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which will serve as a platform to allow better collaboration.

“With the Philippines, we have recently signed a partnership and cooperation agreement (PCA) which creates a very good framework for developing our relations,” Serrano said.

“It speaks clearly about terrorism, the fight against organized crime, about cooperation on peace processes, so this provides us a very good platform to develop cooperation on specific issues,” he added.

On top of this, seven contracts for projects that would offer “clean energy” to 40,000 households in the Philippines were also signed earlier.

In total, the projects will cost €28 million, with nearly€7 million coming from the contributions of applicants and their partners.

READ: EU, Philippines sign 7 contracts for clean energy projects

In his presentation, Serrano also discussed the state of EU as a global security actor, emphasizing that the European body wishes to engage Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines, as the region is turning to be the “political and economic center of gravity.” (Editor: Eden Estopace)