Brussels, 12/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - Ecologists, the far left and civil society consider that the agreement with Andean countries places trade interests above those of sustainable development.
During the debate preceding the ratification vote by the European Parliament on the free trade agreement between the EU, Columbia and Peru on Tuesday 11 December, Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany) again said that, “all major trade unions in Latin America and Europe, all human rights and environmental organisations, senior Church representatives and many parliamentarians have come out against this FTA. With the roadmap on rights submitted by the Colombian authorities, we have nothing but weak promises”.
Throughout the negotiations and ratification signing process, NGOs, ecologists and the far left at the European Parliament continually highlighted the damaging repercussions of a free trade agreement on development and human rights in a region that is sharply affected by record numbers of murders being committed against trade unionists in Colombia, as well as the inability of governments in the region to protect the rights of the indigenous people and prevent violations of labour rights in the mining sector. At the end of November, Scholz emphasised that the impact study commissioned by the European Commission confirms that this agreement will increase pressure on land and natural resources, to the detriment of the poor and will destroy more jobs in Spain and Europe's outermost regions, as well as destroying a number of economic sectors in Colombia and Peru, such as the milk product and financial services sectors, whilst facilitating money-laundering.
On the basis of an independent study, Jürgen Klute (GUE/NGL, Germany) also raised the alarm on Wednesday 5 December about the risk of illegal trafficking of funds due to the absence of measures in the agreement concerning tax evasion and money laundering stemming from drug trafficking and linked to the liberalisation of financial services planned in this agreement (see EUROPE 10745). With regard to the roadmap on human rights and the environment, his Irish colleague, Paul Murphy, exclaimed that this roadmap was being used as fig leaf while claiming that this issue was being dealt with. He also pointed out that Columbia was the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists, human rights activists and journalists, and that 90% of human rights violations went unpunished. Catherine Grèze (Greens/EFA, France) deplored the situation on Tuesday and said that the “EU was promoting the interests of the multinationals at the expense of human rights”.
In a joint press release, South American civil society NGOs OIDHACO, CIFCA, ALOP, FIAN, Friends of the Earth Europe, Grupo Sur, CNDC and Aprodev deplored the fact that Parliament had put the interests of trade above those of human rights and sustainable development because it was not proposing any efficient measure in this regard. The NGOs highlighted the absence of minimum conditions to respond to the asymmetrical situation characterising the two regions. They also drew from and developed the arguments already mentioned above. (EH/transl.fl)