Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-15-Speech-3-020"
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"en.20020515.1.3-020"2
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".
Mr President, I have listened very carefully to the Commission’s speech, which I believe was very correct. I would like to state publicly that the Presidency of the Council has had invaluable assistance from the European Commission in relation to fulfilling our desire to give this Summit substance. It is not my job to pass judgement on budgetary issues which, furthermore, I have no information about, but I can say that the Commission will take account of what the honourable Members have said, although this does not fall within the competence of the Commissioner responsible for external relations. However, both this Commissioner and the Commissioner responsible for trade, Mr Lamy, have made a huge effort to give substance to this Summit, which – we all agree – must not merely be a talking shop. The Commission, together with the Member States, has made a great contribution to this.
The panorama we are facing in relation to Latin America is surely one of the most difficult we have seen in recent years. Following the so-called ‘lost decade’, everything seemed to indicate, during the 1990s, that the Latin American continent was moving forwards, that democratic systems were being consolidated and that great progress was being made in the social field, which is extremely important, because the great problems of Latin America stem from the huge differences between classes, with a very high percentage of people living in a dispossessed class and living without hope. Just when we thought that, by means of our fora for dialogue – whether at sub-regional or at other levels – such as the Rio Group, the San José dialogue, the Andean dialogue, Mercosur, etc., we were beginning to find a way to improve the region, it turns out that we are now facing a very serious situation.
The truly dramatic situation of Argentina has been mentioned. There has also been mention of the situation of Venezuela, of Central America … it is not just one country but a whole range of countries which are not in a position to progress, and – as Mr Obiols i Germà said – they have practically been forgotten. It appears that the rest of the international community has turned its attention entirely away from Central America. These are the realities we must confront in a context in which the European Union is fully aware of its historical commitment to the other side of the Atlantic. There is absolutely no doubt that transatlantic relations are an essential part of Union’s foreign policy as a whole.
America as a whole, from Canada to the Magellan Strait, is a continent in which European culture, history and life have had a great influence. The result of this influence has been hybrid societies, differing societies, which are not European but whose value systems are based on everything they have inherited from centuries of our presence throughout that enormous continent. The European Union’s desire is to value the idiosyncrasies and independence of all those countries while at the same time strengthening all those purely European values which are still alive in those societies and which we are obliged to maintain through our policies. We naturally have to do more than that and that is why we are so involved in the issue of economic development.
We also know, however, that solutions are always long-term, because there are regions, such as Central America or the Andean area, and even the most developed regions, the Southern Cone, which, because of their circumstances, will in reality be very seriously in debt over the coming years, with social consequences which may be extremely dangerous for the future of those countries. I therefore believe that the examples that have been provided, such as the free trade agreement with Mexico and the one we are now going to sign with Chile, offer a means for fairer and more intense exchanges at the highest level. The Union has only reached free trade agreements with one Latin American country, Mexico, and now it is going to sign one with another, Chile, but with the rest of world we have no free trade agreements.
This indicates that we must move towards a shared and fairer commercial system, but, at the same time we must not forget that, together with those two countries, which are the exceptions, there are other countries which have very serious problems, which are not going to be resolved purely by free trade agreements, since, as Mrs Frassoni said, trade is not everything, and we must also act on other levels. This will enable us to take a clear initiative with regard to the policy of the United States which actually is restricted to a great free trade agreement, the FTAA, and offers nothing else. The added value of our European culture and our historic link to that continent must be that "something more" that we must offer, firstly, through the elimination of differences in wealth and the creation of a more balanced and just society, and, above all, through the promotion of good governance, respect for the Rule of Law and respect for human rights. These must be the messages and I believe that the Latin American countries are hearing them. Mr Fox will hear them today – because today we are going to hold a meeting with him – and I believe that all the Heads of State and Government will also hear them within the framework of the dialogue with Europe.
Therefore, the Presidency takes good note of the fact that the European Parliament’s sentiment is precisely that: we must go further than the commercial field, without ignoring it, in order to increase the quality of our relations with Latin America through dialogue between closely-related countries, because we share a culture, language, history and values – above all values – and because the values which have made European society what it is must also make Latin American society more prosperous, more egalitarian, more just and more protective of human rights.
It is in this spirit that the Presidency will approach the Summit and furthermore it now has the support of this Parliament in order to move in the direction we consider to be appropriate."@en1
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