在第11届欧盟-韩国峰会上深化伙伴关系

Multinational Development Policy Dialogue, Brussels Deepening the partnership at the11thEU-Korea Summit Dr. Olaf Wientzek, Sven Nicolay1 At the 11th EU-Republic of KoreaSummiton June 102026in Brussels, both sides agreedon a further deepening of the already close cooperation. On the EU side, both EuropeanCouncil President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von derLeyen participated; President Lee Jae Myung represented the Republic of Korea. The Background The Republic of Korea has become one of the EU’s most important non-European partnersover the past two decades. One of the most important building blocks was the conclusion ofthe free trade agreement in 20112, which since then has led to a doubling of the trade volumebetween the two sides (2025:€124bn). The EU is now the third-largest trading partner ofKorea; for the EU, Korea in turn is the eighth-largest trading partner. Further milestones of thepartnership were the framework agreement establishing the strategic partnership (2014) andthe frameworkagreement on participation in EU crisis management operations (2016).Buteven under the von der Leyen II Commission, in office since 2024, there have already beensteps to deepen cooperation: this includes the signing of the secondSecurity andDefence Key Results–More Than Just a Digital Agreement At the summit, Commission President von der Leyen emphasized the growing strategic The most striking success of the summit was the signing of an agreement on digital trade4.Thisdigital trade agreementcomplements the existing free trade agreement of 2011,enablingthe removal of unnecessary barriers to online trade, andstrengtheninglegal certainty forcompanies operating on the European and Korean markets. It also includes the legal A second signal was the conclusion of a competitiveness partnership between the Republic ofKorea and the EU, which is intended above all to ensure better coordination in the fields ofeconomic security and industrial policy. Driven by a high-level economic dialogue, synergies In the area of security and defence, the existing cooperation-already strengthened throughthe security and defence partnership6-is to be expanded in the areas of cyber and maritimesecurity as well as disinformation. In addition, both sides agreed to work toward the openingof negotiations on an agreement on the security of information “to facilitate the exchange of The joint declaration also indicates that the cooperation begun last year in Horizon Europe isto be continued in the research framework program of the EU’s next multiannual financial Common Language on Geopolitical Challenges Although the People’s Republic of China is not explicitly mentioned a single time in the entiredeclaration, the question of how to deal with an increasingly aggressive Chinawas addressedthroughoutthe declaration-be it through a joint commitment to freedom of navigation in theSouth China Sea, the call for peace in the Taiwan Strait, or the rejection of unilateral attempts Both sides expressed themselves more explicitly regarding support for Ukraine (including thedemand for “ensuringjustice for victims,” reconstruction of the country, the importance of thesanctions regime) and regarding the condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression as well assupport from third parties for Russia, including North Korea. At the same time, there was aclear commitment from the EU side to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.Regardingthe situation in the Middle East, all sides called for de-escalation, demandingthe Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V.country report protection ofthe civilian population and civilian infrastructure, as well as respect for Analysis & Commentary Since the beginning of the second von der Leyen Commission, the EU has consistently soughtto strengthen ties with like-minded countries worldwide in all policy areas. This summit alsofits into this logic. The strength of the bilateral relationship is nowreflected in the multitudeof concrete cooperation initiatives. These are based not only on the shared values of both The common formulations regarding North Korea, Ukraine, the Middle East, and (indirectly)China show the high degree of alignment on current geopolitical challenges,at present,which Forsome projects,such as the“high-level dialogue”on economic issues and thecompetitiveness partnership, not all observers are yet clear what the concrete focal topics willbe. However, the impulse to coordinate more closely with partners worldwide onissues ofeconomic security and industrial policy-where both the Commission and many Member Cooperation with the Republic of Korea has now reached a remarkable depth. However, thediscussions about stronger participation of Korea in the SAFE program or in shapinginstruments in the field of economic security also show that the EU must soon make Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. Dr. Olaf WientzekDirector, Multinational Development Policy Dialogue (MDPD) Brussels Euro