Brussels, 25/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The joint EU/Chile and EU/Mercosur cooperation councils are gathering this Tuesday afternoon in Luxembourg, under the Presidency of the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh, the Paraguayan Minister, Jose Antonio Moreno Russinelli for the EU/Mercosur council (Paraguay ensures the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur), and the Chilean Minister Soledad Alvear, for the EU/Chile council.
Established in the framework of the cooperation agreements, these joint councils will be dedicated to a assessment of the free trade negotiations launched at the end of 1999, trade, the economic and political situation in the two regions and the preparation for the second EU/Latin America summit, which will take place in 2002 in Madrid. The Ministers will also hold a session of "political dialogue" during the joint lunch between the EU, the Mercosur and its associate countries: Chile and Bolivia. The talks should be dedicated to the situation in Columbia, the Summit of the Americas in Quebec, EU enlargement, the EU/United States summit in Gothenburg, crisis prevention and the preparation of the EU/Latin America summit.
"Purely routine", according to the expression from the Latin American Director of the Francisco da Camara Commission in an interview to the EFE news agency, the meetings will nevertheless allow the Ministers to assess the political will of the parties to progress towards the concluding of free trade agreements, a few days before the 5th negotiating round, which will take place from 2 to 6 July in Montevideo between the EU and the Mercosur and the following week in Santiago, between the EU and Chile. In principal these rounds must launch negotiations on the dismantling of tariffs and services. The aim is to end the negotiations, or at least to have progressed sufficiently, for the EU/Latin America summit in 2002, and to begin the liberalisation in 2005, at the same time as the free trade agreement of the Americans being negotiated between the United States and the whole American continent. The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Josep Pique, recently sent a letter to Commissioners Patten and Lamy, insisting for the informal timetable to be respected.
The negotiations with the Mercosur seem to be treading water and the Member States of the Southern pole common market (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay) seem to have difficulties defining a common negotiating position, at a time when their integration process is at a dead-end. In the opinion of the negotiators, the talks with Chile are, on the other hand, in progress and the aim of 2002 could be respected.
We have already presented our tariff figures and we await those of the European Union, stated, on Monday, the Chilean Minister, Soledad Alvear, following a meeting with the Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy. Speaking to a small group of journalists, she refused to set a deadline, underlining that the two parties will gather for as many rounds as necessary to reach an agreement. At the same time, she intends to increase contacts with the European Heads of Government this summer and in the autumn, in order to ensure the political engagement of the Member States in this negotiation, she announced.