Normative Reflections in the Implementation Stage II

The EU Blue Books are a series of publications by the EU delegation in Hanoi to report on the development activities in a given year. The first Blue Book has been published in 2007 but covered the reporting period 2004 to 2006. Since then, annual Blue Books were published on the EU’s and member states’ development priorities in, and disbursements to Vietnam.

Recently the Southeast Asian individual Blue Books have been merged into one common ASEAN Blue Book, the first of which was published by the EU Delegation in Jakarta in 2016, and which replaced among others the Blue Book on Vietnam. Similar publications, namely the Green Books were published by the European Commercial Counsellors in Vietnam. However, these Green Books do not give information about the EU’s trade and economic activities in Vietnam, but about the status of Vietnam’s economy. Therefore, they are not suitable for this analysis. Consequently, the results of this analysis will be biased towards development-related policies, programs and projects, as the analysis includes development activities but not trade

126 activities. Under the scope of this dissertation, which is to assess normative policy coherence for development, this bias does not compromise the study but rather reinforces the focus on

“for development”.

Having a look at the Blue Books gives an indication about policy implementation as the Blue Books are a retrospective compilation of aid disbursements by country and sector, thus, showing the EU member states’ individual sector priorities, but at the same time it shows the EU’s overall commitment in development. Strictly speaking, the Blue Books do not represent policy documents in the sense that they prescribe a new policy. Nevertheless, this section is a complementary analysis to the previous sections to the extent that it is at the implementation level. In terms of the analytical levels above, this would fall into the second implementation stage, even though the Blue Books represent aggregated data from various project in combination with budget support to the Vietnamese government. Policy implementation stage I, however, is understood as the multi-annual indicative programs, or long-term programs tailored to the Vietnamese interests. The second implementation stage is short term and more detailed.

The annual compilation of normative priorities as shown in table 10 below visualized the EU’s preferential shift over the years. Each Blue Book starts with a general explanation of the EU’s development policies which are based on the “common values” that are “respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, peace, democracy, good governance, gender equality, the rule of law, solidarity and justice” (EU Delegation to Vietnam, 2009). This commitment is taken from the European Consensus on Development and does not address EU-Vietnam specific relations. Nevertheless, it reflects some sort of commitment to the values, or norms as they are termed in this research, simply by incorporating and emphasizing the Consensus and its vision for the EU’s development policies. However, a vision is merely a rhetorical strategy, which does not suffice for implementation. Vietnam-specific commitments only are the basis for the discussion below.

Within each Blue Book, the member states’ priorities are described in addition to the EU policy priorities in Vietnam. Taking a closer look at the EU’s policy priorities, excluding the individual member state’s priority sectors, shows that donor coordination, democratic governance, the rule of law, human rights, economic reforms, policy coherence, gender equality and economic sustainability were among the EU priorities from 2007 to 2009. An overview of the priorities from 2007 until 2015 is given in table 11. In the 2010 Blue Book,

127 gender equality was particularly emphasized as the theme for all European Union policies and, consequently, was integrated into the relations with Vietnam. Similarly, environmental protection was included, which remained a priority throughout the year 2011.

Table 11: (Non-) Normative Evolution Represented by the EU Blue Books 2007-2015

2007 – 2009 2010 & 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Source: author’s compilation based on the EU Blue Books 2007-2015

Environmental considerations, despite varying key words, remained important throughout the entire sequence from 2007 to 2015. Gender equality was incorporated into the priorities to a large extent, but to different degrees. In the year on gender equality in 2010 special emphasis was put on the issue, whereas low formal commitment was voiced in 2009, where gender equality is mentioned on the sidelines to policy coherence. In 2012, green growth was the most prominent topic, and in 2013, the post-2015 agenda with sustainable development was at the center. As this overview has shown, the focus of the EU’s development agenda in Vietnam varied slightly from year to year by putting different emphasis on the individual norms (as during the year of gender equality), but the norms remained the same over the period from 2007 to 2015.

In addition to the development priorities examined above, inter-regionalism has gained prominence on the EU’s agenda. In 2012, special attention was paid to EU-ASEAN relations. Interestingly, peace, which had not been an EU priority according to the Blue Books before 2012, was brought to the agenda in relation with ASEAN integration. The Blue Books show that the EU

128 has tried to promote itself as an example of regional integration, which has already brought peace and stability to a regional grouping and, consequently, can support other regions in the integration process. More recently, wider inter-regional relations between the EU and ASEAN, in particular economic cooperation, have become more important. Broader relations outside the scope of traditional donor-recipient relations with actors the Southeast Asia region is also reflected by the EU-VN Partnership and Cooperation and the EU-VN Free Trade Agreement negotiations, which have formed a significant topic in EU-Vietnam dialogues according to the 2013 Blue Book. Thus, development cooperation seems to have moved to the background, whereas political and economic relations have been strengthened. Similarly, the normative dimension seems to be of lesser importance. Human rights, equality, good governance, the fundamental freedoms and the rule of law are still being mentioned in the introductory part of the Blue Book in relation to general EU development cooperation but moves into the background in the EU-Vietnam specific parts of the Blue Book. In the 2013 Blue Book, for example, good governance is listed between other areas of cooperation such as technology and tourism: “[The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement] will further the scope of bilateral cooperation in areas such as trade, the environment, energy, science and technology, good governance, as well as tourism, culture, migration, counter terrorism and the fight against corruption and organized crime” (EU Delegation to Vietnam, 2013, p.32). This excerpt shows that cooperation between the EU and Vietnam aims at addressing one norm in particular, i.e.

good governance. Fighting corruption can be interpreted as a form of implementing the rule of law and as such constitutes a second norm. Most of the areas of cooperation, however, reflect technical cooperation such as energy, science, technology, organized crime, and tourism.

Another interesting aspect arising out of the timeline assessment of the Blue Books is the replacement of gender equality by ethnic minority concerns in 2014. Neither “gender inequality” nor “inequality between men and women” occurred in that report, i.e. in the EU-Vietnam relations during that time. Instead, the focus was placed on ethnic minorities, which, is obviously an issue not to be ignored. Prioritizing ethnic priorities certainly also addresses inequality, however, not in the sense of gender equality. While normative aspirations play a role in the 2014 Blue Book, it is worth mentioning that economic inequality guides the discussion. Two observations need to be made in this regard. First, if the two policy areas ethnic minorities and economic inequalities have just been linked in 2014, it is likely that prior to the thematic inclusion of ethnic minorities, the “average” Vietnamese inhabitant had been addressed by initiatives to reduce economic inequality leaving out the minorities that live in

129 mountainous, hard to reach places. Second, the linkage between ethnic minorities and economic inequalities raises the question as to why economic aspects are addressed solely while raising their political stakes would be just as important in order to create long-term change.

This brief analysis reflects the EU’s overall attitude towards Vietnam in as much as the assessment of EU Blue Books give an overview of the EU’s priorities in Vietnam. In contrast to broader policy strategies, the Blue Books are annual publications and as such can reflect changes in the political landscape faster than medium- or long-term strategies. Notwithstanding this potential flexibility, a trend towards prioritizing energy, environment and trade is noticeable. Simultaneously, gender equality, inequality and ethnic minorities have lost their priority status, which again highlights the economic superiority over norms.