본 논문은 EU 통합으로부터 ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국)의 통합과정에 대한 해석과 지역간 통합의 비교로부터 교훈과 정책적 함의를 논의한다. EU 재정위기가 도래하기 이전에 EU 의 경제통합이 ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국)에 대해 무역량증가와 경제성장에 대해 많은 교훈을 주지만, ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국)은 EU 와 역사적, 정치적, 경제적, 문화적 환경과 배경이 상당히 다르다. 또한 ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국)은 통합과정에 있어, 발전과정과 통합에 대한 요소들이 다르다. 그래서 EU 통합의 경험이 ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국)에 많은 시사점과 교훈을 주지만, ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국) 는 EU 통합의 경험으로부터 긍정적인 측면과 부정적인 측면을 창의적으로 고려하여 EU 통합과는 다른 ASEAN+3 국(중국, 일본, 한국)의 시각으로부터 아시아의 특이한 사회, 경제, 문화, 정치적 요소를 고려하여 서로 윈-윈이 되는 통합전략과 제 3 의 통합모형을 모색해야 한다.
Regionalism has appeared inevitable in the globalized world in the Post-Cold War international order. The European Union can be seen as an important model of successful regional integration with the deepening and widening of integration. In addition, East Asian countries have become more influential in regional and global regionalism. East Asia has, however, no region-wide institutional arrangement and economic integration. In that sense, the regional integration process in Asia has become one of the most frequently discussed issues in recent years. The most visible progress of Asian cooperation can be found in the development of ASEAN+3 processes. Even though there have been many initiatives and attempts to make the integration in Asia, there are a number of internal factors as well as external ones which have constrained it. This paper will argue that EU integration appears to offer ASEAN+3 political and economic lessons concerning maintenance of regional stability and economic lessons. Due to contextual differences, however, between the EU and ASEAN+3, it is believed that EU integration cannot be an exact role model for ASEAN+3 to follow. One of the debates is what we can learn from the European experience and integration. In addition, many questions about the extent of European experience to apply to the Asian integration remain unanswered. In this paper, we compare the ASEAN+3 integration process with that of the EU. Before mentioning the ASEAN+3`s lessons learned from the EU, we will begin with the analysis of the EU and ASEAN+3 in terms of the current situations and their features respectively. Then, we will compare ASEAN+3 with the EU concerning the integration process in terms of historical experience, development process, and factors which have influenced integration. We can make implications for the future of ASEAN+3`s integration politically and economically. In this part, we can see the positive lessons from the EU integration as well as the negative ones. To have a desirable institutional form of ASEAN+3 integration, ASEAN+3 countries need to be actively involved in creating a win-win integration considering the various social and economic factors and they need to share a common regional identity of East Asia. With the consideration of the lessons as a whole, we will suggest some prospects that ASEAN+3 should promote to achieve in the future.