Madrid, 17/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - We are “almost in the last stages of talks”, said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos speaking on the discussions that are expected to lead to the signing of a cooperation and association agreement between the European Union and the countries of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), on Monday 17 May after the meeting of foreign ministers from 60 countries taking part in the EU/Latin America summit. On the trade chapter of the future agreement, wrangling still seemed to come up against issues relating to access by European dairy products to the central-American market. Moratinos spoke of several concrete results expected to come out of the Madrid Summit: - the signing of trade agreements between the EU and two Andean countries (Colombia, Peru) and the reactivation of trade talks with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay), which have been frozen since 2004; - and the creation of the Eurolat Foundation and a funding facility for infrastructure projects (EUROPE 10139). The EU high representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, hoped that the Madrid Summit would lay the foundations for a “new era” in EU/Latin American relations so that the partners might identify global solutions to international challenges such as the financial crisis, international trade, climate change and organised crime. Jorge Enrique Taiana, Argentina's Foreign Minister, saw the financial crisis of 2008, which came about just after the Lima Summit in May 2008 (EUROPE 9662), as a turning point in relations between the two regional entities. The countries of Latin America have “resisted well to the crisis”, whose magnitude requires “imaginative solutions”, he said. He also spoke of migration, a theme that causes concern for many of the Latin American countries. (M.B./transl.tfl)