Luxembourg, 30/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The United Nations Summit in New York in September was one of the main subjects on the agenda at the 12th ministerial meeting of the EU-Rio Group in Luxembourg on 27 May. The joint chairs of the meeting, Luxembourg's foreign minister and President of the Council of the EU, Jean Asselborn, and his Argentine counterpart Rafael Bielsa, pro tempore chair of the Rio Group, reaffirmed the common commitment of Europeans and Latin Americans to multilateralism. In his opening speech, Asselborn said the EU shared the desire to be able to live in an effective multilateral system with the UN as the common centrepiece. During the meeting, the Luxembourg foreign minister welcomed the excellent preparatory contribution to the Summit, namely the report by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, as he explained to reporters at a press conference. He said the EU was determined that this process of reforming the UN would lead to the formulation of common responses to the great problems of development, security (non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the war on terror) and human rights. Asselborn said that the representatives of both sides had reached agreement that reform of the Security Council was one aspect of the reform of the United Nations, but not the only one.
On international issues, the EU stressed the great involvement of Latin American countries in UN peacekeeping operations, like sending Blue Beret soldiers to the Balkans, Cyprus, Afghanistan and Haiti (MINUSTAH). Asselborn commented that through this greater presence, Latin American countries were demonstrating their desire to preserve values dear to Europeans - democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The situation in Haiti was another area discussed at length. Here, Asselborn commented that the EU was concerned at the climate of violence that is persisting in some parts of the country and hopes the process of disarming various organised groups would intensify in order to ensure the return to a secure situation in the country, a precondition for proper elections at the end of the year. On Cuba, Rafael Bielsa said the Rio Group supported the EU's policy in the direction of dialogue with Havana, adding that it was thanks to this dialogue that civil society had been able to find itself a role on the island and this was a good illustration that isolation is not the best solution. Reaffirming statements he had made before the EU-Mercosur meeting (see EUROPE 8956), Asselborn said he was prepared to take initiatives to return to a calmer situation to renew dialogue on human rights and the rule of law. He hoped both sides would avoid provocation in the future and added that the EU had demonstrated its goodwill and hoped the Cuban authorities had understood this. If not, he said, it would be difficult for the EU to put forward anything better than it has already.
The EU and the Rio Group exchanged views on the future of relations between the EU and the Rio Group, and discussed progress in regional integration and cooperation between the two regions. Asselborn said the EU was Latin America's biggest trading partner, one of its biggest investors and the biggest provider of development aid. In this context, Bielsa focussed on what he described as a paradox of contemporary life that justified the current regional integration processes in the South American continent, namely that some national states are too small to face globalisation on their own, while other national states are too big to really respond to citizens' concerns. Both Europeans and South Americans focussed on employment and the idea of 'decent work' raised by Bielsa. On social cohesion, Asselborn said it was fundamental in both Latin America and Europe because poverty, exclusion and inequality were attacks on human dignity and weakened democracy and peace. In his opening speech, Asselborn said that the benefits of democratisation and economic development in the 1990s had not reached all sectors of society in South America, some of which often face inequality and social exclusion and this is an obstacle to economic development and a source of instability for democratic institutions. For this reason, Asselborn highlighted the need for South American government to strengthen social cohesion in their continent and share good practice from the European social model through strengthened political dialogue with the EU.