The EU has welcomed the final report of the EU-ASEAN Vision Group, which was established in 2005 to study ways of strengthening and deepening the trade relations between the EU and ASEAN. The Group was established by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his ASEAN colleagues in an attempt to bring fresh thinking to the economic relations between the EU and ASEAN. The report is said to be an important part of Commissioner Mandelson's wider strategy to renew EU trade policy towards Asia.

Mr Mandelson said, "The ASEAN region is changing fast and our trade relations must change with it. Europe’s approach to Asia is often focused on China to the exclusion of the rest of Asia and this Vision Group was an important part of changing that.”

At the centre of the report was a feasibility study on a potential EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. The report suggests such an agreement would boost trade in goods and services and help attract new EU investment to ASEAN, as well as encouraging ASEAN’s increasing investment in the EU.

The report suggests a range of avenues for bringing the EU and ASEAN closer together such as widening access to the EU market, improving protection of intellectual property rights; and aligning some of the EU and ASEAN's regulatory standards to make it easier for businesses to trade.