Policy Briefs

Thailand: Role Model and Bridge Builder for EU-ASEAN Cooperation in Combatting IUU Fishing

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the most serious threats to marine ecosystems, undermining the national and regional efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks. With an estimated global value of IUU fishing between 10-20 billion EUR per year, one in every five fish is illegally caught from IUU fishing activities annually. Moreover, IUU fishing also comes with social and economic implications since it undermines the fairness of responsible fishermen and gives rise to forced labour and human trafficking.

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Strengthening the EU-Vietnam Partnership: Financing a Green and Just Energy Transition

Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia, expected to become one of the world’s top 20 leading countries by 2050. The country’s export-oriented economy and efforts to transform Vietnam into a manufacturing hub, make it well-placed to keep on attracting trade and investment from external partners from within and outside the region. Yet, despite its climate ambitions and corresponding engagements, Vietnam is also one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of facing high risk disaster levels. The question is how to finance Vietnam’s green and just energy transition.

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The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s 22nd Annual Summit: A Timely Reminder of the Importance of Central Asia’s Role in Geopolitics

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held its 22nd annual summit on 15-16 September 2022 in Uzbekistan’s historical city of Samarkand. The summit gathered its member’s leaders in person for the first time since 2019. In light of the current global political and economic uncertainties, the gathering attracted worldwide attention while hitting the international headlines.

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Mobilising the EU-South Korea Digital Partnership – Moving Towards Gender Equality

South Korea and the European Union (EU) are ‘like-minded partners’ who have strengthened their relationship over the past decade. Ranking as one of the lowest OECD countries regarding Gender Equality, the ROK has room for growth. The Gender Pay Gap and Online violence toward women are highly prevalent in South Korea. The upcoming digital partnership with the EU should consider this. This EIAS Policy Brief will analyse South Korea’s approach to gender equality while comparing it with the situation in the EU and identifying avenues for joint action and cooperation.

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Kishida’s New Capitalism and its implications for EU-Japan relations

On 10 July 2022, The LDP’s strong victory in the Senate elections following the attack on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe provided Kishida with the authority and legitimacy to carry out his New Capitalism policies. “Kishidanomics” will address many issues impacting foreign economic policy, directly affecting Japan’s historical partners such as the European Union.

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Addressing the EU’s GSP+ Dilemma – An Assessment of Pakistan’s GSP+ Status

The EU’s beneficial trade scheme for vulnerable, low-income countries, the GSP+ framework, is currently under review. Meant to aid developing countries’ efforts of lifting their most deprived parts of society out of poverty, it is supposed to incentivise social and environmental conditions in countries such as Pakistan. Yet, there is plenty of criticism revolving around transparency, objectivity and effectiveness of the framework. This EIAS Policy Brief examines areas of potential improvement of the scheme along the case of Pakistan.

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