One of the main outcomes of the Asean Summit held in Kuala Lumpur last December was the appointment of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) to guide the development of an Asean charter.
The charter is designed as a move towards the establishment of an Asean Community by 2020 founded on three pillars – the Asean Security Community, the Asean Economic Community and the Asean Socio-Cultural Community.
Entrusted to map out the future of Asean, the EPG has been preoccupied with forming new ideas and emulating the best practices from other successful regional organisations in order to make a set of recommendations regarding the contents and purposes of the Asean charter. These recommendations will be submitted to the Asean leaders when they meet at the end of the year.
It is recognised among the Eminent Persons that the Asean Charter will be a document that outlines a corporate body’s principles, functions and organisational structure, and that there will be three main elements in the charters of regional organisations: a statement of purpose, the basic principles of the organisation and its institutions. Other elements include membership criteria and the rights and duties of member states.
Comments are closed