Brussels, 16/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - The Vth summit between the European Union and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean opened, on Friday 16 May, in the Peruvian capital with two main themes on its agenda: - the fight against poverty, inequality and social exclusion; and sustainable development and energy policies and the fight against climate change (see EUROPE 9655 and 9597). The Lima Declaration will seal the alliance of the two regional groups on these two themes and will also tackle other challenges such as the rise in food prices, migration, trade policy and the fight against drugs.
Several heads of state and government have, in this context, announced their intention to make concrete proposals as a contribution to resolving the problems on the summit's agenda, mainly with regard to environmental protection. It is in fact in the least-polluting southern countries that the effects of climate change are already most visible. The president of Peru, Alan García, will suggest the creation of a global fund for reforestation. Supplied by a tax on fossil fuels, the fund may, he says, collect over $20 billion per year, which would be used to plant trees on 10 million hectares. The president of Guatemala, Álvaro Colomb, takes the view that compensation should be paid to offset damage done to natural resources in order to improve the living conditions of the populations affected. The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, will present the “Yasuní ITT project” whereby Ecuador undertakes to suspend operation of its largest oil field located in the Yasuní natural park in exchange for international financing equivalent to half of the proceeds from taxes brought in from oil production. When it comes to combating poverty, the president of Panama, Martín Torrijos, is expected to suggest setting up a market for selling off food production surpluses on the basis of predefined prices and customs duties. The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, will suggest the creation of a fund which each year allocates one billion dollars to the poorest nations. José Luis Zapatero, Spain's Prime Minister, will confirm the creation of a fund for access to water, $1.5 billion being earmarked to it over four years.
A symbol of Euro-Latin American unity, the Lima Declaration will struggle to hide the tension between Latin American countries and above all within the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), a regional subgroup made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Colombia are far from having returned to normal. They had been broken off early March after the incursion by the Colombian army onto Ecuadorian territory to eliminate a leader of the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia, without Quito having been informed beforehand. Mr Correa would like a European force to be deployed along the border between the two countries, an idea hailed only by Spain. In Bolivia, further to the action of several breakaway provinces, a national referendum will be held mid August to confirm, or depose, President Evo Morales. The latter announced early May that several multinationals of the energy and telecommunications sectors would be nationalised, a position which comes up against the interests of European and Latin American commercial interests. He also accused his Peruvian and Colombian opposite numbers of wanting to negotiate bilateral trade agreements with the EU, as these two countries have done with the United States. This situation naturally weighs on the progress made by talks aimed at sealing an association agreement between the EU and CAN, including a trade chapter (see EUROPE 9656). While, in Lima, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was in favour of launching talks only with the countries already ready without necessarily having to wait for the countries that are not. On the European side, the official line is that of praising the virtues of regional integration, as the best way to stimulate economic growth and, at the end of the day, of reabsorbing poverty. The EU and CAN will be meeting on Saturday to take stock.
On Saturday, other mini-summits will be held between the countries of the EU and Mercosur, Central America and with Chile and Mexico (see EUROPE 9661). During the Lima Summit, Panama's full participation in talks between the EU and the countries of Central America with a view to concluding an association agreement should be finally endorsed. During a visit to Mexico City this week before regaining the Peruvian capital, Commission President José Manuel Barroso praised the development of cooperation between the EU and Mexico. It is time to go one step further, he said, by setting a “strategic association” in place. Finally, with momentum provided by Spanish diplomacy, the EU/Latin America summit could provide an opportunity to take stock of the 2003 European measures sanctioning the Cuban government for repressive reprisal affecting several dozen opponents to the Castrist regime (see EUROPE 8926). The handover of power between the Castro brothers was accompanied this year by measures to enhance the civil liberties of Cubans. (M.B.)