What Instruments Did The EU Employ When Dealing With Good Governance In Vietnam Case Study

This section explores the means employed by the EU to pursue its goals by searching answers to the following sub –questions:
1. What instruments did the EU employ when dealing with good governancein Vietnam during the period 2000 - 2013?
2. To what extent does the deployment of these instruments reflect the EU’s exercise of normative power?
Aiming at realizing its objectives, the EUdeployed different means to implement its good governance agenda in Vietnam throughout the period 2000 – 2013. Itcontributed to the promotion of good governance in this country through various kinds of assistance ranging from financial aid to advice and training. The EU’s donation to public administration, institutional reform and good governance in Vietnam for
Asignificant reduction in the financial assistance notwithstanding, the EU reserved a decent amount of money for the promotion of good governance in this developing country.With these sums of money, it initiated a number of projects and programmes to support Vietnam. A noteworthy programme is the “Small Project Facility Programme”, which provides grants to Vietnam – based organizations to support projects with the priorities indicated in the Country Strategy Papers. This programme has a strong focus on good governance related matters in order to facilitate the reform process in Vietnam and its integration into the world economy through“promoting civil society dialogue and facilitatingmutual understanding and interactions in the fields of governance and respect for therule of law.” The co – funded project"Promoting People’s Participation and Governance in Vietnamese Cities through the Association of Cities of Vietnam (ACVN)" is another remarkable undertaking.This one – year plan (2009 – 2010) was implemented through the collaboration of the Konrad – Adenauer - Stiftung (KAS) and the Association of
All of the Country Strategy Papers and the National Indicative Programmes, which coversissues on good governance, were adopted after the consultation stage.The Commission discussed and negotiated with the Vietnamese Government and the civil societyin order to come to an agreement before making specific interventions, launching new projects, or deciding the budget for each activity. This illustrates the “coherence and complementarity of EC actions in Vietnam with Government policy.” Notably, within the cooperation framework, a sub group on “Co-operation in institution building, administrative reform, governance and human rights” was established by the EU – Vietnam Joint Commission in 2003. This groupcomprises of senior officials from both parties and its main duty in the field of good governance including proposing future cooperation activities and keeping an eye on the reforms as well as the progress in good governance building. The committeeholds numerous side meetingssuch as seminars, workshops, round tables and annual formal meetings to review and evaluate the activities implemented during one year as well as discuss new plans for the next year. These things show the consensus of both sides on good governance agenda, proving that the EU did not impose any coercion on the Vietnamese