Successive quandaries and crises have revealed the flaws in the EU’s institutional design, and each (painstaking) upgrade has made the European project that much stronger. With no hint of paternalism, and recognizing its status as a work-in-progress, the EU should increase its engagement with Asia’s existing structures and lend its know-how where possible – for example, in ASEAN’s shift toward a three-pillared design (political-military, economic, and socio-cultural) by 2015.