RI HOPES BAN ON GARUDA FROM FLYING OVER EUROPE BE LIFTED: FM SPOKESMAN

Jakarta, July 1 (ANTARA) - Indonesia hopes that during the French presidency of the European Union, the ban on the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia from flying in EU air space will be lifted, a spokesman has said.

"We're hoping that during the French presidency, this bilateral problem will be totally resolved," Benny Bahanadewa, secretary of the the Directorate General of America-Europe at the Indonesian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, said here on Tuesday.

He made the remarks during a lecture "France in the European Union Today" delivered by Prof. Nicolas Jabko from Institut d'Etudes Politiquess de Paris.

French Ambassador to Indonesia Mme Catherine Boiveneau opened the lecture.

Benny further said that as of now EU-Indonesia agreements mainly covered economic issues.

"We have been addressing political and security issues mostly in interregional and multilateral forums. With the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in place, we will be more deeply engaged in the politico-security field," he said.

It was unfortunate, though, that in the midst of negotiations toward the PCA and without prior notification to the Indonesian Government, Garuda had been banned from flying over EU territory, he said.

"Although the ban is not directly relevant to the envisioned PCA, it has contributed to the slowing down of the negotiations," he said.

In spite of that, there is still a great deal of good will on the part of EU in Indonesia."
"We are sustaining the spirit of partnership with the EU. Moreover, we welcome EU's efforts to resolve the issue, including the use of the Hewa Bora mechanism, on-site visits to various airports in Indonesia, Air Safety Committee meetings, and the recent Bandung Training Conference," Benny added.

According to him, the aviation sector in Indonesia had vastly improved in the last several months, with great emphasis on safety issues.

"And we look forward to a very successful French presidency of the European Union, during which relations between the EU and Indonesia will grow stronger and stronger. I have no doubt about this," he said.


Model
Prof Nicolas Jabko told reporets the EU is a model and inspiration for regional groupings, including ASEAN, to increase cooperation.

The groupings could learn and understand what the EU could do and measures it had taken, he said.

Unlike Europe, Jabko said the groups in Asia such as the Assosiciation of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have problems due to their size, socio-political backgrounds and the level of their economies.

"There are China and Japan which influenced Asia," he added.

In the lecture, Prof Jabko spoke of challenges facing the French government during its brief six-month presidency of the European Union starting from July to December this year.

On the one hand, expectations are running high. President Nicolas Sarkozy is perceived as a dynamic political leader who helped the EU to go onward despsite various difficulties since 2005.

On the other hand, the French government is subjected to many critcism and constrains.

France's partners do not always appreciate the activist style of French political leaders and governments' intermittent obedience abidance to the EU's budget rules.

He also touched on the EU political situation after Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty.

Meanwhile Ambassador Catherine Boinvineau said the French president and the Prime Minsiter had set four main priorities for the second half of 2008.

The first priority concerns an energy-climate package and EU energy policy.

The second concerns migration. The third priority concerns European security and defence and the fourth will cover Common Agriculture Policy.

"France has accurately identified the problems and measures that must be carried out to meet its mandate," said Benny.

Noting the direction France has taken and its stance on regional and global issues, he believed that France would be able to build on Slovenia's achievements and help guide the European Union toward strengthening itself as a community, as well as a political and economic entity.

Slovenia was president of the European Union for the first half of 2008.

EU has 27 members with nearly 500 million people. With a total GDP of approximately 15 trillion US dollars, the EU is one of the driving forces of the world economy. Its membership is now twice the size of that during its inception as the European Economic Community.

The EU has become one of Indonesia's major trading partners, with a total trade volume of US$104 billion in 2007. Investments of EU countries reached US$ 3 million in the same period, making the EU one of Indonesia's largest investors.