Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the meeting with M. Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission

[Held at the EC Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, September 15, 1994]

Philippine partnership
with the European Union

MR. PRESIDENT, thank you very much for your strong and sustained support of the Philippines—most lately expressed in these three development projects whose financing memoranda our people have just signed.

The focus of these projects reflects the development priorities our two sides share—people empowerment, protection of the environment and sustainable development.

Your Excellency, let me also express our appreciation of the Commission’s sponsorship of the Business Round table on the Philippines that is taking place here in Brussels even now.

European partners in our development

Through this roundtable and other forums, we are inviting European industrialists and investors—with their renowned technical expertise and capital resources—to be our partners in Philippine development.

The Philippines has just returned to the path of growth and sustainable development. And we are creating a business environment equally open to national and foreign investment.

The participation in our economic modernization of Europe’s entrepreneurs will highlight a relationship that goes back to 1521, when Spain discovered our Philippine archipelago for the Western world.

Our interest in the European model of society

The libertarian ideals our young intellectuals brought home from Europe sparked our nationalist revolution of 1896—which resulted in East Asia’s first free republic in 1898.

Today there is just as much interest among my countrymen in the European model of society.

Mr. President, we look to the economic concepts objectified in the European Union as an alternative kind of capitalism—which assures a democracy with a greater care for those social groups whom competition leaves behind.

Like you, we in the Philippines believe the general interest is much more than the sum of individual interests. Like you we seek to guarantee the least of our people equality of opportunity—if not equality of outcome.

At the moment, Mr. President, all we can do is aspire to follow the progress you in the European Union are achieving. But let me say—finally—that projects like the ones we launched today will help us move toward that goal.