Brussels, 27/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has adopted the Regional Indicative Programme (RIP) for Mercosur for the period 2002 to 2006, which will be worth EUR 48 million. This funding will be for seminars, training and regional affairs and can be added to the aid programmes for the different countries of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). It was approved at the beginning of August (see EUROPE 3 August p 4). European Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten declared that, "The region at this very moment faces serious economic and political challenges…it is important that we continue supporting our partners."
The objective of the programme is to: 1) support the completion of the internal market of Mercosur, (2) strengthen Mercosur institutions and sectoral policies and (3) improve possibilities for civil society actors to actively contribute to further integration and to EU-Mercosur relations. In a press statement, the Commission explained that it had already organised two conferences in October 2000 and February 2002. A third conference will be held next year focusing on the information society, the social dimension of Mercosur and educational, cultural and audio-visual matters.
The EU and Mercosur began negotiations for establishing a free-trade association agreement two years ago. A new negotiating session is expected to start up again in November. During the EU/Latin America Summit in May 2002, the two parties re-affirmed their desire to strengthen political, trade and economic links. After round seven, negotiations have still not progressed enormously. Stuck in an economic recession, Argentina is waiting for the EU to open up its agricultural markets as soon as possible in order for it to balance its trade deficit. The EU, however, is refusing to make any commitments with regard to the agricultural domain before it has a clear idea on the results of World Trade Organisation (WTO) multilateral negotiations, which are expected to finish in 2005.