Europe Day will be marked amid testing times as nations in the economic and political bloc deal with the fallout from the biggest sovereign bailout plan in the history of the European Union (EU).
As Greece's fiscal woes and the threat of debt crises flaring in other economies are tackled, this may be the time to reflect on the landmark speech made by French statesman Robert Schuman 60 years ago. Schuman proposed closer industrial co-operation between France and Germany, which led to the European Community being formed.
Today the EU is a global power broker. 'It is a time of great internal crisis for us,' says Maria Castillo-Fernandez, the diplomat who heads the Office of the European Commission to Hong Kong and Macau. She says a more co-ordinated effort is needed to tackle 'the common challenges we face - be they economic or climate change'.
She lauds EU nationals - numbering 30,000 locally - for helping their compatriots who were recently stranded at Hong Kong's airport owing to volcanic ash in skies over Europe. 'They helped us find places for them ... they opened their houses and provided meals and beds for people who could not otherwise afford accommodation.'
Hong Kong and the EU need each other. Last year, the EU was Hong Kong's second-largest trading partner, only after mainland China. The EU is also Hong Kong's main foreign investor, contributing 10 per cent of its foreign direct investment in 2008. Hong Kong is the EU's 17th-largest trading partner and its 15th largest export market, according to Eurostat, which also notes that bilateral trade was Euro32.6 billion (HK$336.6 billion) in 2008, but fell by 10.4 per cent to Euro29.2 billion last year amid the global financial crisis.
From 2005 to 2009, bilateral trade growth has trended downwards, with average annual growth reaching minus 1.6 per cent. 'The decline was probably due to the diversion of trade to southern China, where goods are directly exported to the EU rather than going through Hong Kong,' Castillo-Fernandez says.
However, bilateral trade in services between the EU and Hong Kong saw healthy growth last year, with EU commercial service exports to Hong Kong at Euro8.8 billion (up 7.7 per cent) and imports from Hong Kong at Euro7.9 billion (up 4 per cent). Transport and business and financial services are among the biggest and fastest-growing sectors.
