Brussels, 03/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Commission announced that a number of meetings will take place during the months of April and May in preparation for the second EU/Latin America/Caribbean Summit, which will take place on 17-18 May in Madrid.
A Civil Society Forum will take place on 3-5 April in Alcobendas in Spain between European and Latin American NGOs, which is expected to present a number of proposals from the social justice, the fight against poverty, trade and agriculture domains to the Summit. A meeting of representatives from the economic and social committees will follow this Forum on 17-19 April in Madrid. Social partners are also expected to formulate a number of recommendations on the social dimension to relations between the two continents. A meeting on the protection of human rights, organised by the Spanish Ombudsman (Defensor del pueblo), will bring together European and Latin American ombudsmen on 24-25 April in Madrid. Judges, legal experts, public prosecutors and academics will be attending for an exchange of experiences. A Euro-Latin American conference of bishops will take place on 13-15 May on the initiative of the Commission of the Bishops Conference of the European Community and its Latin American counterpart, the Celam, and the Spanish Commission of Episcopates. A cultural Forum, organised for 16 May in Madrid by the Spanish Presidency, will bring together representatives from foundations from the two continents, in order to promote synergies and the creation of public-private networks. In the field of trade, a business leaders forum will take place on 25-26 April in Mexico, organised by Mexican employers' organisations, Coparmex-Concamin and the European organisation UNICE. Mexican President, Vicente Fox, and Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten, are expected to attend.
Three Ministerial meetings will pave the way for the three main Summit themes: 20-22 March, a Ministerial conference on science and technology took place in Brasilia; 25-27 April an information technology conference will take place in Seville; 13-15 May a conference on social security. (The complete meeting programme can be found on the Commission Internet site: http//europa.eu.int/comm/world/lac).
Summit Preparation stage - Other EU-Latin American partner summits
The second EU/Latin American/Caribbean Summit should provide the real substance for the "strategic partnership" project, outlined at the Rio Summit in June 1999, for three areas: 1) The consolidation of the State of Law, democracy, civil rights, 2) Economic and trade perspectives, 3) Co-operation and technical and cultural development etc. Three meetings with high-level civil servants are expected to attend the Summit to add the finishing touches to the draft declaration to be adopted by European and Latin American Heads of State. The formal themes of the Summit itself have already been defined: 1) Democracy and security, 2) Strengthening of multilateralism and regional integration, 3) Social equity and sustainable development, 4) Cultural diversity and modernisation.
There will be several fringe meetings to the Summit of 48 Heads of State and EU/Latin American/Caribbean governments: 1) EU/Mercosur summit, 2) E15 summit with Mexican President Vicente Fox, 3) Meeting of the European Presidential Troika with counterparts from the Andes area (Venezuela, Colombia, Equator, Peru and Bolivia, 4) Meeting with EU Foreign Affairs Ministers and the San José group (Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama).
Trade issues are expected to set the tone of the meeting. Chile and the EU have pledged to finish negotiating a Free Trade and Association Agreement before the Madrid Summit. Several tricky issues still have to be settled, like fishing and the mutual recognition of wine "appellations" and rules of origin. The crisis in Argentina has put the prospects of concluding EU/Mercosur negotiations over a free trade zone onto the back burner since Mercosur can no longer comment on the EU's tariff proposals nor improve its offer. The two sides will be meeting up for a new round of negotiations next week when they are expected to at least agree on the sections of the agreement concerning cooperation and political dialogue. They may also set out non-tariff ways of enhancing trade.
Countries in the Andes and Central America are expected to stress in Madrid that they want to sign a Free Trade Agreement with the EU. They want to find a more stable and negotiated system to replace the unilateral concessions granted them by the EU under the generalised preference scheme (that runs out in three years time). They see the trade concessions granted to ACP countries and Pakistan as setting a precedent. Despite the Spanish Presidency's insistence on this issue (supporting the Latin Americans' views), the EU is far from agreeing on the issue. France is the Member States that is putting up the fiercest resistance to the signing of new Free Trade Agreements.