Brussels, 22/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Preparations for the second EU/Latin America summit to be held in Madrid in 2002 is expected to be the common theme linking ministerial meetings to be held next week on the South American continent, with the participation of Anna Lindh, President-in-Office of the Council, and Chris Patten, External Relations Commissioner. The ministerial meeting of San José, which brings the EU and the Central American countries together every two years will be held on Monday 26 March in Guatemala. It will be mainly devoted to cooperation in the field of disaster prevention, civil security, the rule of law and "good governance". On Wednesday 28 March, the EU/Andean Pact, EU/Mercosur and EU/Rio Group ministerial meetings that gather the EU countries and twelve Latin American countries will be held successively in Santiago de Chile. The preparation of the EU/Latin, America Summit and the new sectors of cooperation proposed by the EU (human rights, information society and the fight against social inequalities) should be the focus of debates. Proposals on the follow-up to the first EU/Latin America summit of 1999 will be perfected during a meeting of "senior officials" in Santiago. Commissioner Patten will also be in Colombia on 27 March, to prepare the meeting of the support group for the peace process in Colombia, to be held on 30 April in Brussels.