Brussels, 13 July 2023
Today, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held the 29th EU-Japan Summit in Brussels.
The summit reaffirmed the EU and Japan’s ever closer partnership in promoting peace and security, ensuring prosperity and economic security, addressing humanitarian needs, achieving sustainable development, fostering human-centric digitalisation, tackling climate change and environmental degradation, and enhancing health security.
During the summit, President von der Leyen announced that the Commission is lifting the import restrictions for food following the nuclear accident at Fukushima. The lifting of the measures stems from positive results from controls done on the products by the Japanese authorities and the Member States.
The EU and Japan have also agreed to strengthen their work towards the green and digital transformations, and to enhance their dialogue and cooperation on economic security. In this regard, the EU and Japan have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to support secure, resilient and sustainable submarine connectivity and a Memorandum of Cooperation on semiconductors, as well as an Administrative Arrangement aimed to reinforce cooperation on critical raw materials supply chains.
The EU and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the full and effective implementation of our trade and investment relations for the benefit of our citizens and business community. In that respect, they agreed on deadlines for the approval of EU Member States’ applications for beef exports and for the mutual recognition of the regionalisation principle for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. They also committed to accelerate the Data flows negotiations, with the aim of concluding them still this year.
The EU and Japan will continue to make tangible cooperation offers under their Connectivity Partnership, the EU Global Gateway and their respective strategies for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. In this regard, they have agreed to work together on a number of prospective projects in Asia and Africa.
President von der Leyen’s press remarks will be available here shortly and you can watch the press conference live on EbS. The joint statement will be available later here.
For more information on the outcomes of the Summit, you can check our press material online:
- Press release: EU-Japan Summit: Commission lifts the Fukushima restrictions on food imports
- Press release: EU and Japan boost strategic cooperation on digital and critical raw materials supply chains
- Factsheet
Source – EU Commission – Email