Australia's Gillard, EU's Barroso support closer relationship

EUXTV October 04, 2010

Ahead of the ASEM Summit, Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia and José Manuel Barroso, EC President stated they want to develop further the EU-Australia relationship.

Prime Minister Gillard proposed to create a treaty aiming at strengthening the cooperation between EU-Australia in research, development and innovation .

The EC President said he will examine those proposals in detail and consult Member States. 'We very much support the idea of giving more important expression to the relationship between Australia and the European Union', added José Manuel Barroso.

They also discussed topics for the preparation of the G20 in Seoul, South Korea. Issues such as the restructuring of IMF, financial reforms and economic governance were raised.
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