Brussels, 27/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - In view of the 4th EU-Latin American and Caribbean Summit on 12 May in Vienna, the European Commission is organising a high-level conference in Brussels on 27-28 March for fighting against social inequalities, poverty and exclusion in Latin American, Caribbean and European Union countries. Together with the European Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who opened the conference on Monday morning, representatives from the Commission, Ministers from the two continents and more than 200 representatives from civil society, companies, unions, international organisations and universities are expected to debate social cohesion policies and exchange their experiences on the subject. Participants in the debates include the following Commissioners: Vladimir Spidla (Employment and Social Affairs), Louis Michel (Development) and Joaquin Almunia (Economic and Monetary Affairs), as well as the President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell and the Secretary General for the Organisation of American States, José Miguel Insulza. Work will focus on the following points: need for integrated strategies for social cohesion and exchange of best practices between Union and South American/Caribbean countries; development of cooperation at regional level and support for social cohesion; mobilisation of public policies for promoting social cohesion; mobilisation of companies and unions; promotion of dialogue and cooperation between EU/Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since the 3rd EU/Latin American Summit in Guadalajara (Mexico) on 28 May 2004, the Union has made social cohesion on the South American continent an essential axis for bilateral relations. In an effort to support social cohesion in Latin America, the European Commission launched a five year programme in 2004 with a budget of € 30 million - the EUROsociAL, enabling governments from Latin America to elaborate and implement social policies that should contribute to reducing the gap between the rich and poor. EUROsociAL aims to foster cohesion by creating, together with those responsible for defining public policy, the necessary capacity for taking into consideration the social dimension. Health, education, administration, justice, employment and taxation will be highlighted. Addressing the press on Monday Ms Ferrero-Waldner underlined the Union's support for efforts made by South American governments to ensure social cohesion, “We have witnessed the adoption by all Latin American countries of the democratic system and the process of economic and social reform…but Latin America still faces big challenges such as poverty and social inequality”. The Commissioner said that “in the context of regional integration, more efforts are needed”. She also aid that she hoped that the Vienna summit would provide a boost to negotiations for the association agreements (free trade, political dialogue and cooperation) between the Union and the Andes Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela) as well as from Central American countries (“San José Dialogue”: Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Salvador, Panama and Belize). The opening of such negotiations, for which the Commissioner is expected to obtain the Council's mandate (on 28 February the Council reaffirmed its support for a reinforced strategic partnership with the South American continent: EUROPE 9141), will depend on the a priori assessment by the Commission of the degree of regional integration by the Andean and Central American community. “Obstacles” to reinforced regional integration for each of these two regions persist, explained the Commissioner, who called on governments of South and Central America to demonstrate their “breadth of political will and cooperation”. The Union is also monitoring very closely, the efforts made by populist presidents Hugo Chaves in Venezuela and Evo Morales (recently elected) in Bolivia for creating a stronger South American trade group around Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), to the detriment of the Andean community.