Singapore warmly welcomes the agreement reached by our negotiators on 31 May 2013 on concluding negotiations for the EU-Singapore Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (ESPCA). This Agreement is a positive step forward in bilateral engagement between Singapore and the EU as equal partners. It complements and reinforces the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA), which both sides recently concluded.
The EU and Singapore have a long-standing relationship. The ESPCA reflects a renewed commitment to reinforce these growing ties and take our engagement to a higher level.
Background
The ESPCA is a vehicle for developing broad-based and mutually beneficial cooperation in fields such as non-proliferation, security, energy, maritime transport, air services, and science and technology. This agreement will also improve people-to-people links by facilitating mobility of students and scholars within the framework of the Erasmus Mundus programme, and will open wider avenues to promote cultural exchanges.
The ESPCA complements the EUSFTA, for which substantive negotiations had been concluded on 16 December 2012. Both the EUSFTA and the ESPCA will go through a legal scrubbing process and will be signed after all domestic processes, including translations and verifications, are completed.
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
1 JUNE 2013