Brussels, 24/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - Tarso Genro, Brazilian labour minister and Executive Secretary of the Brazilian economic and social development committee (CESD), and Roger Briesch, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), signed a Cooperation Agreement between the two consultation bodies at the EESC plenary in Brussels on 17 July. In a letter read out to the plenary, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, “expressed the EU executive's support for cooperation that strengthens the development of MERCOSUR and its organised civil society and for a more participatory democracy".
The EESC and Brazilian CESD Cooperation Agreement will provide for the exchange of experience concerning social and political dialogue and the fostering of Brazil's and MERCOSUR's economic integration with the EU and vice-versa, notes an EESC press release. The President of the EESC's Latin American Contact Group, José Maria Zufiaur, called for the strengthening of the social dimension of MERCOSUR and for the institutionalisation of civil society to ensure that social cohesion becomes the link for relations between the EU and Latin America, according to the EESC press release.
Brazil's economic and social development committee was established in Brasilia on 13 February 2003, in the presence of the Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, and Roger Briesch, who suggested various ways that the two assemblies might work together (see EUROPE of 18 February, p. 18).