What can the Association of South East Asian Nations learn from the European Union?

The International Conference on ASEAN Development (ICAD) brought students from all over the world to discuss the latest issues and challenges faced by the ASEAN. ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations), which comprises of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, and Indonesia, is celebrating one year of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) establishment. The theme of the 2016 conference was “Innovating the ASEAN Economic Community: Lessons from the European Union”. The European Union (EU) is an older, bigger and more integrated institution and theoretically speaking, it should be a good source of learning lessons for the ASEAN, especially when taking account of both its successes and mistakes.