20th EU-Japan Summit — Joint Press Statement

Brus­sels, 28 May 2011
Mr Her­man Van Rompuy, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Coun­cil, Mr Jose Manuel Bar­roso, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, and Mr Nao­to Kan, Prime Min­is­ter of Japan, met today in Brus­sels to reaf­firm the close part­ner­ship between the Euro­pean Union and Japan as like-mind­ed glob­al part­ners and major economies, com­mem­o­rat­ing the 20th anniver­sary of Sum­mits between the two sides. Unit­ed by a shared com­mit­ment to fun­da­men­tal val­ues and prin­ci­ples, includ­ing democ­ra­cy, the rule of law and human rights, as well as to the mar­ket-based econ­o­my and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, and faced with com­mon glob­al chal­lenges, Sum­mit lead­ers are resolved to deep­en bilat­er­al rela­tions from a com­pre­hen­sive and long-term per­spec­tive.

Year of Sol­i­dar­i­ty and “Kizu­na” (the bonds of friendship)

Sum­mit lead­ers dis­cussed the after­math of the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake and tsuna­mi which struck East Japan on 11 March. Their shared con­vic­tion is that Japan’s stead­fast efforts will enable it to over­come the chal­lenges, and emerge even stronger than before.

Japan expressed its sin­cere appre­ci­a­tion for the heart­felt sup­port from the EU, which rep­re­sents a tan­gi­ble illus­tra­tion of “kizu­na” between the EU and Japan.

Build­ing on their coop­er­a­tion dur­ing the ini­tial post-dis­as­ter relief effort, the EU and Japan decid­ed to con­tin­ue close dia­logue and seek pos­si­bil­i­ties for col­lab­o­ra­tion dur­ing the recov­ery and recon­struc­tion phase. Sum­mit lead­ers also shared the inten­tion to enhance coop­er­a­tion on dis­as­ter man­age­ment and human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance. In light of the seri­ous con­se­quences caused by the earth­quake and ensu­ing tsuna­mi at the Fukushi­ma-Dai­ichi nuclear pow­er plant, they under­lined the cru­cial impor­tance of suc­cess­ful­ly sta­bil­is­ing the plant, and deal­ing with the radi­o­log­i­cal impact and with the health and envi­ron­men­tal con­se­quences of this acci­dent in a con­tin­ued spir­it of transparency. 

The lessons learned from Fukushi­ma must be care­ful­ly stud­ied by gov­ern­ments and the nuclear indus­try to ensure that events of this kind nev­er occur again. Sum­mit lead­ers are resolved to work bilat­er­al­ly and with their inter­na­tion­al part­ners to pro­mote the high­est lev­els of nuclear safe­ty around the world, in par­tic­u­lar through the Inter­na­tion­al Atom­ic Ener­gy Agency (IAEA) and the G8/G20. The EU and Japan will exchange infor­ma­tion and views on the safe­ty mea­sures tak­en at nuclear pow­er sta­tions on both sides and fur­ther devel­op coop­er­a­tion on strength­en­ing inter­na­tion­al nuclear safe­ty stan­dards. Both sides have set in train action to ensure that safe­ty at all their nuclear plants is rig­or­ous­ly assessed — and, if need­ed, rein­forced as a mat­ter of urgency. Sum­mit lead­ers encour­aged all their inter­na­tion­al part­ners to take sim­i­lar mea­sures. The EU and Japan shared the view that it is impor­tant for pub­lic pol­i­cy respons­es to be based on sol­id sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence, includ­ing in rela­tion to goods and travel.

The Annex to this State­ment sets out con­crete “EU-Japan Coop­er­a­tion Fol­low­ing the Great East Japan Earth­quake and the Acci­dent at the Fukushi­ma-Dai­ichi Nuclear Pow­er Plant” approved by the Sum­mit leaders.

Next Steps for Stronger EU-Japan Relations

The last EU-Japan Sum­mit held in Tokyo on 28 April 2010 entrust­ed a joint High-Lev­el Group with the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of options for the com­pre­hen­sive strength­en­ing of all aspects of the EU-Japan rela­tion­ship and defin­ing the frame­work for imple­ment­ing it. In light of this work, Sum­mit lead­ers agreed to start the process for par­al­lel nego­ti­a­tions for:
− a deep and com­pre­hen­sive Free Trade Agree­ment (FTA)/Economic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment (EPA), address­ing all issues of shared inter­est to both sides includ­ing tar­iffs, non-tar­iff mea­sures, ser­vices, invest­ment, Intel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty Rights, com­pe­ti­tion and pub­lic pro­cure­ment; and
− a bind­ing agree­ment, cov­er­ing polit­i­cal, glob­al and oth­er sec­toral coop­er­a­tion in a com­pre­hen­sive man­ner, and under­pinned by their shared com­mit­ment to fun­da­men­tal val­ues and principles.

Sum­mit lead­ers decid­ed, to this end, that the two sides would start dis­cus­sions with a view to defin­ing the scope and lev­el of ambi­tion of both nego­ti­a­tions. Such scop­ing would be car­ried out as soon as possible.

In par­al­lel with this, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion will seek the nec­es­sary autho­riza­tion for the nego­ti­a­tion of these agree­ments on the basis of a suc­cess­ful scoping.

Sum­mit lead­ers have reviewed planned and ongo­ing bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion ini­tia­tives. Among many, for estab­lish­ing a just, com­pre­hen­sive and last­ing peace in the Mid­dle East, the EU and Japan will enhance joint efforts to sup­port the eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple. In this regard, the EU wel­comes Japan’s con­tri­bu­tion to the EU’s PEGASE mech­a­nism. In Afghanistan, the EU and Japan con­tin­ue to pur­sue coop­er­a­tion on secu­ri­ty, rein­te­gra­tion, and devel­op­ment assis­tance includ­ing the estab­lish­ment of a police train­ing cen­tre in light of the trans­fer of secu­ri­ty respon­si­bil­i­ty from inter­na­tion­al to the Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Forces. The EU and Japan will also co-host a con­fer­ence on Tajik­istan-Afghanistan bor­der man­age­ment in the sec­ond half of 2011 in Dushanbe. For the safe­ty of mar­itime nav­i­ga­tion off the coast of Soma­lia and in the Gulf of Aden, the EU and Japan will con­tin­ue to coop­er­ate close­ly on counter-pira­cy in the region. Tak­ing advan­tage of the Agree­ment between the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty and the Gov­ern­ment of Japan on Coop­er­a­tion in Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy, which recent­ly entered into force, the EU and Japan will deep­en and broad­en the scope of their coop­er­a­tion and launch new col­lab­o­ra­tive activities. 

They will also explore the pos­si­bil­i­ty of estab­lish­ing a coop­er­a­tion frame­work on satel­lite nav­i­ga­tion at gov­ern­men­tal lev­el. Sum­mit lead­ers wel­comed plans to deep­en coop­er­a­tion on the draft Code of Con­duct of Out­er Space activ­i­ties with a view to pro­mot­ing trans­paren­cy and con­fi­dence-build­ing mea­sures in out­er-space activities.

Sum­mit lead­ers wel­comed the recent devel­op­ment of Cus­toms coop­er­a­tion includ­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the mutu­al recog­ni­tion of Autho­rised Eco­nom­ic Oper­a­tor (AEO) pro­grammes, which will facil­i­tate trade between the EU and Japan.

Sum­mit lead­ers reaf­firmed their deter­mi­na­tion to con­tin­ue to coop­er­ate with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ties on both sides, in par­tic­u­lar through the EU-Japan Busi­ness Round Table. Con­scious of their glob­al respon­si­bil­i­ty and of the depth and impor­tance of their bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion, Sum­mit lead­ers decid­ed today to estab­lish a new frame­work for twice-year­ly meet­ings of senior offi­cials to over­see progress in their bilat­er­al rela­tions. World Econ­o­my and Trade

Sum­mit lead­ers under­lined their deter­mi­na­tion to enhance coop­er­a­tion and pol­i­cy coor­di­na­tion bilat­er­al­ly and with their G7/G8 and G20 part­ners to pro­mote the recov­ery of the world econ­o­my, by secur­ing strong, sus­tain­able and bal­anced growth, fos­ter­ing job cre­ation, avoid­ing exces­sive macro­eco­nom­ic imbal­ances and ensur­ing finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and fis­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty. To this end, they will strive for effec­tive and time­ly imple­men­ta­tion, by all mem­bers, of the com­mit­ments made in the G20 frame­work and active­ly coop­er­ate with a view to prepar­ing the next G20 Sum­mit in Cannes. They will remain vig­i­lant to avoid dis­or­der­ly move­ments and per­sis­tent exchange rate misalignments.

Recall­ing the impor­tance of facil­i­tat­ing glob­al trade and invest­ment, Sum­mit lead­ers not­ed with great con­cern the unsat­is­fac­to­ry progress in the Doha Devel­op­ment Agen­da nego­ti­a­tions. They shared the view that all nego­ti­at­ing options must be exam­ined at the WTO in a spir­it of give and take in order to achieve an ambi­tious, bal­anced and com­pre­hen­sive final agree­ment. Sum­mit lead­ers also reaf­firmed their deter­mi­na­tion to com­bat all forms of pro­tec­tion­ism. They also com­mit­ted to a rapid, ambi­tious and bal­anced con­clu­sion of nego­ti­a­tions on the revi­sion of the Gov­ern­ment Pro­cure­ment Agreement.

Recog­nis­ing its impor­tance in the indus­tri­al sup­ply chain, Sum­mit lead­ers are com­mit­ted to ensur­ing that the glob­al sup­ply of raw mate­ri­als, includ­ing rare earth, is secure and sus­tain­able in order to realise sta­ble eco­nom­ic growth.

Glob­al Challenges

Cli­mate change remains an urgent glob­al issue. Sum­mit lead­ers shared the view that the EU and Japan would coop­er­ate with a view to exert­ing lead­er­ship togeth­er in the field of cli­mate change, pro­mot­ing the devel­op­ment of low-car­bon glob­al economies that are safe and sus­tain­able, con­sis­tent with the inter­na­tion­al objec­tive of lim­it­ing the increase in glob­al aver­age tem­per­a­ture below 2°C. To this end, they will strive in par­tic­u­lar for steady imple­men­ta­tion of the Can­cun Agree­ments and the adop­tion of a robust, glob­al, fair, effec­tive, com­pre­hen­sive and legal­ly-bind­ing agree­ment with par­tic­i­pa­tion by all major economies. The Dur­ban Unit­ed Nations Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change (UNFCCC) Con­fer­ence should con­sti­tute a step­ping stone in this direction. 

Sum­mit lead­ers reaf­firmed the impor­tance of green­ing the econ­o­my for achiev­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. They also shared the view that the Unit­ed Nations Con­fer­ence on Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to raise the pro­file of the Green Econ­o­my, includ­ing Resource Effi­cien­cy, at the high­est pos­si­ble lev­el and to pro­mote it as a new mod­el for sus­tain­able glob­al eco­nom­ic growth. They also reached a com­mon recog­ni­tion on the impor­tance of imple­ment­ing the out­comes of the 10th Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties (COP10) of the Con­ven­tion on Bio­log­i­cal Diver­si­ty (CBD) in Octo­ber 2010.

Sum­mit lead­ers will con­tin­ue and rein­vig­o­rate their bilat­er­al ener­gy coop­er­a­tion on secure, safe and sus­tain­able ener­gy poli­cies, and ener­gy-relat­ed research and tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment, with a view to con­tribut­ing to ensur­ing ener­gy secu­ri­ty and devel­op­ing a low car­bon econ­o­my. They will also con­tin­ue to advance these goals through coop­er­a­tion in the appro­pri­ate inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions and initiatives.

Sum­mit lead­ers con­firmed their deter­mi­na­tion to joint­ly con­tribute to the suc­cess­ful achieve­ment of the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals (MDGs) by 2015, where the aspect of human secu­ri­ty is essen­tial, with a spe­cial empha­sis on coun­tries where progress towards the MDGs is most off-track, includ­ing those in sit­u­a­tions of fragility.

Sum­mit lead­ers also con­firmed their strong com­mit­ment to the pre­ven­tion of and fight against ter­ror­ism and pro­mo­tion of imple­men­ta­tion of the UN Glob­al Counter-Ter­ror­ism Strat­e­gy. Sum­mit lead­ers under­lined the impor­tance of ful­ly imple­ment­ing the reforms of the UN sys­tem adopt­ed at the 2005 UN Sum­mit, includ­ing reform of the main UN bod­ies, as referred to in the out­comes doc­u­ment, in order to strength­en the UN’s capac­i­ty to effec­tive­ly address chal­lenges. Sum­mit lead­ers expressed their deter­mi­na­tion to strength­en the glob­al non-pro­lif­er­a­tion archi­tec­ture by sup­port­ing all mul­ti­lat­er­al treaties and arrange­ments that help to pre­vent and com­bat pro­lif­er­a­tion, and by pro­mot­ing their imple­men­ta­tion and uni­ver­sal­i­sa­tion. Sum­mit lead­ers reit­er­at­ed their com­mit­ment to seek a safer world for all and to cre­ate the con­di­tions for a world with­out nuclear weapons, in accor­dance with the goals of the Treaty on the Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). They expressed their sup­port for the imple­men­ta­tion of the com­mit­ments made by all NPT States Par­ties at the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

Region­al Issues

Acknowl­edg­ing the his­toric impor­tance of the changes under­way in the Mid­dle East and North Africa, Sum­mit lead­ers affirmed their sup­port for the cit­i­zens’ legit­i­mate aspi­ra­tions for demo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion, eco­nom­ic mod­erni­sa­tion and the respect for human rights. They con­demned the vio­lence against civil­ians and expressed con­tin­u­ous deep con­cern for the sit­u­a­tions in the region. In par­tic­u­lar, on Syr­ia, they not­ed that both the EU and Japan have imposed restric­tive mea­sures with the objec­tive of per­suad­ing the Syr­i­an regime to change course, start gen­uine reforms and aban­don repres­sion and vio­lence. On Libya, Sum­mit lead­ers reaf­firmed the need for the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to inten­si­fy the efforts towards an inclu­sive polit­i­cal solu­tion. They also not­ed the impor­tance of pro­duc­tive dia­logues between the EU and Japan for effec­tive sup­port towards the coun­tries cov­ered by the EU’s East­ern Part­ner­ship policy. 

Sum­mit lead­ers exchanged views about the region­al secu­ri­ty envi­ron­ment of East Asia. They recalled the cur­rent secu­ri­ty con­cerns and under­lined the use­ful­ness of the exist­ing strate­gic dia­logue between the EU and Japan. They also decid­ed to con­tin­ue their coop­er­a­tion in those fields. Sum­mit lead­ers con­demned the seri­ous vio­la­tion of the rel­e­vant UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil (UNSC) res­o­lu­tions and the 2005 Joint State­ment of the Six-Par­ty Talks in rela­tion to North Korea’s ura­ni­um enrich­ment activ­i­ties. They urged North Korea to take con­crete actions towards ful­fill­ing its com­mit­ments and com­ply­ing with its oblig­a­tions, includ­ing denu­cleariza­tion. In addi­tion, they stressed the impor­tance of address­ing North Korea’s human rights issues, includ­ing the abduc­tion issue. Sum­mit lead­ers expressed utmost con­cern at Iran’s per­sis­tent fail­ure to com­ply with its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions and require­ments under all rel­e­vant UNSC and IAEA Board of Gov­er­nors’ Res­o­lu­tions. They called on Iran to ful­ly com­ply with its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions and require­ments and to engage in a con­struc­tive dialogue.

Peo­ple-to-Peo­ple Exchanges

Deter­mined to build clos­er ties between the cit­i­zens of the EU and Japan, the two sides will con­tin­ue to pro­mote joint study and mobil­i­ty pro­grammes between high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions, and have decid­ed to launch exchanges between their diplomats.

Sum­mit lead­ers con­grat­u­lat­ed the win­ner of the sec­ond EU-Japan Eng­lish Haiku Con­test held under the theme of “kizu­na”.

EU-JAPAN COOPERATION FOLLOWING THE GREAT EAST JAPAN EARTHQUAKE AND THE ACCIDENT AT THE FUKUSHIMA-DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Build­ing upon exist­ing coop­er­a­tion, Sum­mit lead­ers affirmed the intent of the Euro­pean Union and Japan to devel­op and expand their coop­er­a­tive activ­i­ties on nuclear safe­ty, the sup­ply of safe and sus­tain­able ener­gy and its effi­cient use, and nat­ur­al dis­as­ter pre­ven­tion. Ini­tial areas for joint activ­i­ties could include the following:

A. WORK TOGETHER TO ENSURE THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF NUCLEAR SAFETY WORLDWIDE

1. Japan intends to con­tin­ue work­ing with the EU and oth­er inter­na­tion­al part­ners in assess­ing and shar­ing lessons learned from the acci­dent at the Fukushi­ma-Dai­ichi nuclear pow­er plant

This will include:
— Iden­ti­fy­ing the caus­es of the acci­dent and eval­u­at­ing the dam­age at the site;
— Draw­ing and shar­ing all the lessons gained from the acci­dent; and
— Ensur­ing sci­ence-based pol­i­cy respons­es fol­low­ing such events, includ­ing mea­sures on goods and travel. 

2. The EU and Japan will coop­er­ate in mon­i­tor­ing the impact of the acci­dent The Japan­ese gov­ern­ment is pur­su­ing the cru­cial work of radi­a­tion mon­i­tor­ing in the areas con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed as a result of releas­es of radioac­tive mate­ri­als. The EU, and indi­vid­ual EU Mem­ber States, have exper­tise and spe­cif­ic capac­i­ties which can be made avail­able to assist Japan if needed.

This could include:
— Mon­i­tor­ing radi­a­tion, in par­tic­u­lar the radi­a­tion of goods orig­i­nat­ing from the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed areas;
— Assess­ing the impact on human health; and
— Eval­u­at­ing oth­er radi­o­log­i­cal impacts, includ­ing the impact for the man­age­ment of mar­itime resources, waste water treat­ment and man­age­ment, food safe­ty, and transport. 

The EU and Japan are com­mit­ted to close coop­er­a­tion with inter­na­tion­al expert bod­ies involved in assess­ing the con­se­quences of the acci­dent such as the Inter­na­tion­al Atom­ic Ener­gy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Ener­gy Agency of the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Devel­op­ment (OECD/NEA), the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO), and the UN Sci­en­tif­ic Com­mit­tee on the Effects of Atom­ic Radi­a­tion (UNSCEAR). 3. The EU and Japan will coop­er­ate in efforts to pro­mote inter­na­tion­al stan­dards and appro­pri­ate mea­sures on nuclear safe­ty and emer­gency preparedness/response
This will include:
— Work­ing close­ly togeth­er and with oth­er inter­na­tion­al part­ners, includ­ing the IAEA and key nation­al reg­u­la­to­ry author­i­ties;
— Imple­ment­ing com­pre­hen­sive risk and safe­ty assess­ments for exist­ing nuclear facil­i­ties, and encour­ag­ing oth­er coun­tries to do so;
— Shar­ing expe­ri­ence on results and cor­rec­tive mea­sures; and
— Pos­si­ble pro­vi­sion of assis­tance in rela­tion to such assess­ments in oth­er coun­tries where it is needed. 

4. The EU and Japan will strength­en their research and devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion on nuclear safety 

This will include:
— Build­ing on the exist­ing excel­lent coop­er­a­tion between Euratom and Japan;
— Seek­ing syn­er­gies between respec­tive pro­grammes deal­ing with nuclear safe­ty, severe acci­dents, radi­a­tion pro­tec­tion, radioe­col­o­gy, emer­gency man­age­ment, radi­o­log­i­cal and nuclear risks , and envi­ron­men­tal impact mon­i­tor­ing;
— Pro­mot­ing researcher mobility.

The EU and Japan are also coop­er­at­ing with­in the Gen­er­a­tion IV Inter­na­tion­al Forum (GIF). 5. The EU and Japan will con­sid­er pos­si­bil­i­ties for coop­er­a­tion in decon­t­a­m­i­na­tion and decom­mis­sion­ing, and more gen­er­al­ly in post acci­dent management

6. The EU and Japan will strength­en coop­er­a­tion on mit­i­ga­tion of radi­o­log­i­cal, nuclear and oth­er risks in oth­er countries 

This will include:
— Enhanc­ing insti­tu­tion­al capac­i­ty to man­age Chem­i­cal, Bio­log­i­cal, Radi­o­log­i­cal and Nuclear (CBRN) risks in oth­er coun­tries, in par­tic­u­lar risks of acci­den­tal ori­gin in the nuclear and radi­o­log­i­cal fields; and — Exchang­ing infor­ma­tion on the imple­men­ta­tion of respec­tive pro­grammes, in par­tic­u­lar the EU region­al CBRN Cen­tres of Excel­lence ini­tia­tive and Japan’s Inte­grat­ed Sup­port Cen­tre for Nuclear Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion and Nuclear Security. 

B. REINVIGORATE ENERGY COOPERATION

1. The EU and Japan will strength­en their dia­logue on ener­gy pol­i­cy This could include:
— Exchang­ing expe­ri­ence and best prac­tices on pol­i­cy-set­ting for secure, safe, and sus­tain­able ener­gy;
— Deep­en­ing infor­ma­tion exchange on respec­tive approach­es and posi­tions to pro­mote ener­gy secu­ri­ty, renew­able ener­gy and ener­gy effi­cien­cy in the frame­work of the rel­e­vant inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions and ini­tia­tives; and
— Explor­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties for exchang­ing views on long-term plan­ning and the ener­gy mix. 

2. The EU and Japan will pro­mote research coop­er­a­tion, mak­ing full use of bilat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al agree­ments (includ­ing the Agree­ment between the Euro­pean Com­mu­ni­ty and the Gov­ern­ment of Japan on Coop­er­a­tion in Sci­ence and Technology)

This could include:
— Sup­port­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of joint research projects and activ­i­ties in pho­to­volta­ic, pow­er stor­age, car­bon cap­ture and stor­age, and sup­port­ing coop­er­a­tion in smart grids and hydro­gen fuel cells;
— Fos­ter­ing exchanges of researchers, expe­ri­ence, infor­ma­tion, and knowl­edge;
— Accel­er­at­ing the deploy­ment of sus­tain­able low-car­bon tech­nolo­gies; and
— Coop­er­at­ing fur­ther in the frame­work of the ITER Agree­ment and the Japan-Euratom Broad­er Approach Agreement .

3. The EU and Japan will seek pos­si­bil­i­ties for coop­er­a­tion on defin­ing inter­na­tion­al stan­dards in emerg­ing tech­no­log­i­cal fields

This could include next gen­er­a­tion vehi­cles, smart grids, and means of enhanc­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy in build­ings, includ­ing through ICT applications.

4. The EU and Japan will lead inter­na­tion­al efforts in green­ing the econ­o­my, encour­ag­ing resource effi­cien­cy in all eco­nom­ic areas, and com­bat­ing cli­mate change Mind­ful of the mul­ti­ple ben­e­fits flow­ing from inte­grat­ed ener­gy and cli­mate action, this will include coop­er­at­ing close­ly domes­ti­cal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly, includ­ing in fora such as the UN, G8 and G20, the Clean Ener­gy Min­is­te­r­i­al (CEM), the OECD, the Major Economies Forum on Ener­gy and Cli­mate (MEF), the Inter­na­tion­al Ener­gy Agency (IEA), the Inter­na­tion­al Part­ner­ship for Ener­gy Effi­cien­cy Coop­er­a­tion (IPEEC), and the Inter­na­tion­al Renew­able Ener­gy Agency (IRENA).

C. IMPROVE COORDINATION AND ENHANCE COOPERATION IN HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE, EMERGENCY RELIEF OPERATIONS AS WELL AS DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND PREVENTION

1. The EU and Japan will coop­er­ate on human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance pol­i­cy and emer­gency relief operations

This will include iden­ti­fy­ing areas where both sides can work togeth­er and add val­ue in this area, using the exist­ing pol­i­cy dia­logue and con­sul­ta­tion mechanisms.

2. The EU and Japan will exchange views on nat­ur­al dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness and pre­ven­tion 3. The EU and Japan will explore pos­si­bil­i­ties to deep­en coop­er­a­tion in oth­er rel­e­vant areas This could include research coop­er­a­tion on cat­a­stroph­ic nat­ur­al haz­ards, mon­i­tor­ing geo­log­i­cal­ly active regions, tsuna­mi and seis­mic risks, and ear­ly warning.

4. The EU and Japan will share expe­ri­ence on struc­tur­al design codes for build­ings with a view to improv­ing stan­dard setting. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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