Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-29-Speech-3-098"
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"en.20020529.7.3-098"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Spanish Presidency's desire to make a particular mark and send a signal of solidarity and political rapprochement by holding the Latin American and Caribbean Summit in Madrid is something to be welcomed. It ties in with Spain's unique involvement in Latin America, which results not only from its history but also from major economic interests. When Latin America sneezes, Spain catches a cold, or so I read recently. There is of course a good deal more underlying this summit.
Linking the two continents is, as President Prodi has put it, a matter of European concern. There is of course far too little public attention paid in Europe to the political upheavals and economic crises in the region. Very often, we are surprised when a country as rich in crude oil as Venezuela slides into a crisis which is grave not only for that country's economy but also for its democracy. We seem to have grown accustomed to Argentina collapsing, and the international capital markets go more in fear of Japan's possible economic downfall than of Argentina's economy going bust.
Again and again, though, we put our hopes in a new beginning for democracy, as we have done now in the aftermath of the elections in Columbia, a country which is a prime example of how closely combined are drug crime and international terrorism. It is for our Parliament in particular to demand energetically that the Colombian politician Ingrid Betancour be released from the hands of left-wing guerrillas.
At the end of the day, the EU has to give life to Latin America's strategy, which, as Mr Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra said, means making available the financial resources to do it. In real terms, that also means the establishment of a free trade area comprising the EU and the central American and Andean States, which should eventually lead to an association agreement comparable to those with Mexico and Chile. Negotiations on an agreement of this sort with the Mercosur countries have unfortunately taken their place.
The European Union should not just leave the Latin American market to the USA. Any Latin American strategy is about much more than economic interests, and we need it also to combat organised crime and illegal immigration. The final measure of what will have been achieved will be the EU-Latin America in Mexico in 2004."@en1
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