Brussels, 29/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The NGOs of Latin American civil society want to see more frequent meetings of the EU-Mexico forum and to extend the scope of its talks.
Establishing permanent contact and consultations between each session of the EU-Mexico forum which, since the entry into force of the global cooperation agreement between the two partners in November 2000, has met only once every two years - this is the aspiration of the organisations of Latin American civil society, led by the NGOs ALOP and CIFCA, taking part in the fifth meeting of the forum in Brussels on 26 October, alongside the institutions of the Mexican government and the EU. The civil society organisations have also proposed that the scope of bilateral dialogue be extended to questions related to employment law, the environment, development cooperation, the recognition of the land of indigenous people, security issues and democratic progress.
On Friday, the talks focused on economic affairs, political dialogue and cooperation, the three components of the EU-Mexico global cooperation agreement. The group in charge of the discussions on economic affairs reiterated the need for European businesses investing in Mexico to make the same commitments as they do in Europe in terms of social responsibility. On the political pillar, the NGOs expressed their concerns at the worsening human rights situation, and raised the issue of the co-responsibility of the EU in drugs trafficking and massive sales of weapons of European manufacture to the United States, which illegally enter Mexico. Lastly, on the cooperation chapter, the civil society organisations called for the Mexican government to carry out an assessment of the impact of EU-Mexico cooperation over 10 years. They expressed their regret that, as they put it, the EU is using the pretext of the economic crisis to reduce its development cooperation model with countries of higher average income such as Mexico, where 28 million people go hungry. (EH/transl.fl)