Strasbourg, 16/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament called for the creation of a Euro-Latino-American free trade area by 2010, in a short resolution adopted on Wednesday and targeted at the EU/Latin America/Caribbean Summit, on Friday. According to the EP, this free trade area would add an institutional support and a complete geographic cover to the content of the strategic bi-regional partnership (agreed upon at the Rio Summit in 1999). The parliamentarians welcome the end of negotiations for an association and free trade agreement with Chile, hoping that the signature and ratification procedures will take place as quickly as possible, and call upon the Council and Commission as well as upon the countries that form part of the Mercosur, to clearly relaunch the negotiations in view of concluding an association agreement.
Moreover, the resolution invites the summit to define a common strategy for a "global partnership", attached to a bi-regional agenda and deadlines for the full implementation of this partnership. It suggests the creation of a bi-regional solidarity fund, which would be responsible for managing and financing the sector-based programmes in the fields of health, education and the fight against extreme poverty, and underlining the need to intensify co-operation, notably in the fight against poverty, access to education and the modernisation of administrations, and reiterate that the EU's Latin American policy must be provided with sufficient resources.
The parliamentarians express their "concern" with events that took place in Venezuela, deeply deplore the political, economic and social crisis in Argentina, and formulate the hope and desire for the Presidential elections, on 26 May in Columbia, to take place in a climate of peace. As indicated in yesterday's EUROPE (p.7), the parliamentarians supported an amendment from the EPP-ED and the ESP calling on EU Council to add to the European list of terrorist organisations, the groups and organisations that practice assassination, kidnappings, blackmail, extortion and all other types of activities, without explicitly citing FARC. Finally, the parliamentarians call on Cuba and the EU to continue their relations and political dialogue.
During the debate with the Council President, Ramon de Miguel, and Commissioner Chris Patten, Jose Ignacio Salafranca, hoped, on behalf of the EPP-ED, that the Summit not be a ritualistic event, but asserts a political will to launch the process towards a bi-regional association that is a palpable reality. Rolt Linkhor, for the Socialist group, underlined that the EU has concrete possibilities for co-operation in the industrial, scientific and technical domains, which must not be underestimated, notably by putting forward the presence on the Latin American continent of the Kourou space centre in Guyana and the European space observatory in Chile. Isidoro Sanchez-Garcia, on behalf of the Liberal Group, hoped that the Summit leads to pragmatic conclusions improving the peoples' standard of living, respect for human rights and the participation of civil society in the decision-making process. Monica Frassoni, co-President of the Greens/ALE, invited the EU to distance itself from the United States' policy in Latin America, solely founded on free trade, and regretted that 56% of Latin-American exports are used to finance the servicing of the debt. She also chastised the Spanish Presidency, who accepted the coup in Venezuela, which is unacceptable. In the same vein, Pedro Marset Campos, for the GUE/NGL, called on the Europeans not to allow the development of a "militarist" policy relaunched by the United Sates since September 11th, at the risk of losing credibility in Latin America.
Commissioner Patten moved with the parliamentarians, by recognising that the summits are often seen as hot air machines and assured that we truly want for this Summit to be more than just hot air. He also put forward the Commission's initiatives since the last summit of this kind: programme to promote exchanges in the field of information technology, support to human rights mediators in Latin America, financing of a 2002-2006 programme for exchanging experiences in the fight against social inequalities, scholarship programme. With trade, Mr Patten confirmed that the Commission is sensitive to the requests from Central American and Andean countries and intends to present a mandate for new co-operation agreement aimed at facilitating investment and trade, but without making any pledges on the conclusion of a free trade agreement. On the other hand, Ramon de Miguel called for opening the door to the creation of a free trade area.