Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-15-Speech-3-010"
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"en.20020515.1.3-010"2
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". – Mr President, the day after tomorrow, as the presidency has just pointed out, the second Summit between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean will take place in Madrid. The fundamental aims of this Summit are: to reinforce the bi-regional strategic partnership that was launched nearly three years ago at the first Summit in Río de Janeiro, and to set out new objectives for the next two years.
In the social sphere, the Commission also goes to Madrid with a positive balance sheet. We have promoted the participation of different civil society groups and have financed a series of meetings that will submit their conclusions to the Summit. We have co-financed an academic seminar on social equity, an NGOs forum as well as a civil society meeting. This is on top of the recent business forum held last month in Mexico. As evidence of our ongoing commitment in this area, it is worth noting that in programming cooperation for the period 2000-2006 the Commission has allocated a substantial part of its existing financial resources to the social area.
In addition, the Commission is currently working on all initiatives aimed at increasing public administration capacity in social policies, through exchanges of experience, best practice and know-how.
Finally, in the field of education, the Commission has approved an ambitious scholarship programme under the name of ALBAN. Over a period of nine years, 4 000 scholarships will be awarded to Latin American graduates wishing to complete their studies at European universities.
I want to emphasise to Parliament how much importance I personally attach to this programme. As we all know, too often Latin American students feel that they have no choice other than to head directly north to continue their studies. We have to give them another option: the option of coming to study at European universities. That would be good for us, and I hope it would be good for the next generation of leaders in Latin America. These are scholarships which will be generous – worth about EUR 19 000 each year. They will be managed by, I hope, a network of higher education institutions. If we can make a success of this scholarship scheme, we can look at developing similar schemes in other areas, because I believe profoundly – a point made by Mr Iglesias on a number of occasions – that one of the most important ways in which we can help our partners around the world is by opening our own universities to as many of them as possible.
Let me move on to my second main question: what does the Commission expect from the Summit?
First of all, Madrid should be an opportunity to enhance the political dimension of our bi-regional strategic partnership. This partnership is about more than just developing cooperation projects: indeed, 48 heads of state and government have not come together simply to endorse a new list of projects. I am convinced that what is really important is the opportunity that Madrid presents us with to give political weight to fresh and bold initiatives. In particular, we need to bring our political dialogue into sharper focus. By doing so, we will come closer together on issues of common concern, such as climate change, the development agenda agreed at Doha, the International Criminal Court and human rights. We must also commit ourselves increasingly to assert these convergent positions in international fora. This will result in the strengthening of the multilateral system.
Europe has a particular responsibility, through our actions and cooperation with others, to make it clear that, in our judgment, the only way in which we can tackle international problems is through international cooperation. We should look in particular for partners in making multilateralism work in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Secondly, the Commission expects the Summit to address what is one of the most important questions for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean: the fight against social inequities and the search for social cohesion. We know – some of the figures were given by the presidency – that Latin America faces a potential problem of political instability because of social inequity. This issue needs to be addressed, and the Summit should concentrate on the search for solutions to this problem.
Lastly, we expect Madrid to represent a milestone in a number of sub-regional negotiation processes – again, as the presidency pointed out. Perhaps most significantly, the Summit will mark the conclusions of our negotiations with Chile. This is indeed a considerable achievement. It constitutes a major strengthening of bilateral relations and I endorse everything that the presidency said about the extraordinary depth and breadth of the agreement we have concluded with Chile. It is one of the most important agreements we have ever concluded with any country. Elsewhere, the Summit should welcome the fact that the negotiation of the political, institutional and cooperation chapters with Mercosur is practically finished. I hope it also encourages the efforts being made to conclude the outstanding negotiations in due course.
With regard to Central America and the Andean Community, the European Union has been particularly sensitive to the requests of these two regions significantly to enhance their relations with us. The General Affairs Council conclusions of 15 April have paved the way for the negotiation of a political dialogue and cooperation
with both regions. These negotiated agreements will seek to enhance our trade and investment relations and prepare the ground for still closer cooperation in the future. By doing this, the European Union has satisfactorily responded to the legitimate aspirations of these countries, and I hope the Madrid Summit will wholeheartedly support this move.
I will not repeat all the reasons for the importance of this relationship, which was set out so cogently by the presidency – economic, political and cultural – but we all know how important it is. Rather than repeat what has been said so eloquently already, I would like to address two main questions regarding the Summit. Firstly, what has the Commission done to ensure the success of Madrid? And secondly, what results do we expect from the Summit?
Before concluding, I would like to extend my congratulations to the Spanish presidency for the excellent work it has carried out regarding the preparation of the Summit. I would also like to pay tribute to the European Parliament’s extraordinary commitment to the future of our relations with Latin America, and to one or two individual Members who have played a particularly constructive role, one of whom is going to speak as soon as I have sat down. I should like to congratulate Parliament in particular on the ambitious and far-reaching initiatives contained in the resolution of 15 November 2001.
We in the Commission have been working hard with the Spanish government and others to make this Summit a success. We have been working for almost 18 months with that objective in mind. We have been able, not without some difficulty, to bring to fruition schemes like the scholarship programme and the programme on the information society. We have concluded negotiations with Chile on an extremely wide-ranging agreement, as we said, which many faint hearts thought impossible. We have made more progress with Mercosur than most would have predicted. Now we want to raise the level of our relations with the other subregional groupings as well. This provides the basis for a good Summit, which will further strengthen our bi-regional relationship and prepare us to take things forward even further when we next meet – probably in two years' time – almost certainly with a larger European Union.
It goes without saying that the Commission is strongly committed to ensuring the success of the meeting in Madrid. And, we are equally committed to ensuring that the bi-regional process initiated at Rio succeeds. Indeed, what is at stake in Madrid is the fundamental credibility of this whole process.
As Parliament knows, public opinion has been increasingly critical of summits in recent years. We look back to the controversy surrounding the G8 meetings last year. These summits are frequently derided as high-level talking shops that too often produce little more than hot air. The summits’ grandiloquent final declarations are frequently, and perhaps rather embarrassingly, contrasted with the paucity of the results they actually achieved.
As the Commission has repeatedly emphasised, we are determined that Madrid will not just be a talking shop like that. It has to be credible, and in order for it to be so, we need to demonstrate clearly that the ambitious objectives defined at Rio have been achieved.
I do not want to launch into a long-winded overview of everything that has stemmed from Rio. Nor am I the right person to outline everything that others have achieved since then. Instead, I shall concentrate on the Commission’s accomplishments in the priority areas of cooperation that it committed itself to work on.
I firmly believe that we have fulfilled our part of the bargain and we can go to Madrid with our heads held high.
Firstly, the Commission has launched several programmes aimed at supporting and strengthening those institutions that explicitly defend human rights. These include a regional programme in support of ombudsmen in Latin America and two multi-annual programmes on democracy and human rights. In addition, the Commission has co-financed a bi-regional conference on the work and cooperation of ombudsmen and national human rights institutions, as well as an inter-continental conference on human rights protection.
Moving on to information society, which the presidency referred to, our most notable achievement has been the adoption of the @LIS programme. Aimed at reinforcing cooperation between the European Union and Latin America, it was officially launched at the EU-Latin America and Caribbean ministerial meeting in Seville a few weeks ago."@en1
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