Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-30-Speech-2-006"
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"en.20040330.1.2-006"2
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".
Mr President, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this debate and, looking at the speaking list, I am sure it will have been worth waiting for! It is very important for us to have the opportunity once again to discuss the European Union's relations with Latin America, and I am particularly pleased that we have the views of two very distinguished colleagues who know so much about the subject and who have committed themselves so enthusiastically and knowledgeably to strengthening our relations over the last few years.
The next joint step should be to evaluate progress achieved by both regions with a view to preparing the ground for the opening of negotiations. I would underline that this process should be carried out in an objective manner and we should not set impossible standards that might only lead to frustration among our counterparts.
The Commission has always supported regional integration. We are convinced that it should continue to do so. This support is not only one of words: under our regional programme for Central America, the Commission has approved one project in support of the Central American Customs Union worth EUR 8 million in 2001 and a second one in support of the regional integration institutions and the involvement of civil society in the process of regional integration worth EUR 15 million in 2003. A further project in support of the development and implementation of common policies to the value of EUR 10 million is currently under preparation. In the Andean Community, projects on statistics, customs, competition and trade-related technical assistance, together worth more than EUR 15 million, are being implemented and there are plans to strengthen this form of cooperation in the forthcoming revision of the regional strategy paper, adding another EUR 4 million to the economic regional integration objective.
Central America, the Andean Community and Latin America as a whole are not suffering from a lack of interest from our side. In the current financial perspectives from 2000 to 2006, funds for Latin America are about 20% higher than in the former financial perspective. The Community budget spends about EUR 0.15 per capita in Asia, while three times that much per capita is spent in Latin America. Perhaps of the greatest significance, we are now actually spending the money we commit. In 2003, 100% of the payments, as well as 100% of commitments, were used.
I want to emphasise once again that relations with Latin America are a geostrategic priority for the European Union. I have been particularly pleased in recent weeks to be able to discuss our relationship with representatives of Mercosur, with all the foreign ministers of the Andean Community and with representatives of Central America. I very much hope that we will be able to have a successful summit to follow up the one in Madrid, which will focus on regional integration and social inclusion. I also very much hope that the summit in Guadalajara will be able to see a further development in our relations with the two regions with which we have only recently negotiated sensible agreements.
The agreements which we are discussing today mark an extremely important step forward in our relations with Central America and with the Andean Community. I am therefore grateful for the strong support that the European Parliament gave to them.
As the House knows, the commitment to negotiate new political dialogue and cooperation agreements with each region was made at the Madrid EU-Latin America and Caribbean summit in 2002. The European Union has delivered on this commitment. Negotiations were successfully and rapidly concluded after just two rounds in October 2003, and both agreements were signed on 15 December in Rome.
These new agreements are ambitious. First of all, they institutionalise and strengthen the political dialogue: the San Jose dialogue with Central America that was initiated in 1984 and the ministerial political dialogue conducted with the Andean Community that goes back to the 1996 Rome Declaration. Secondly, they expand the scope of both the political dialogue and the European Union's existing cooperation with the two regions, for example, by including some new areas such as migration, conflict prevention, good governance and counter-terrorism activities.
Obviously, having negotiated these agreements as rapidly as possible is not enough. We must also make sure that they enter into force quickly and I hope that ratification procedures on both sides will be speedy. This is important, because the new areas addressed by the agreements reflect the very real concerns of both regions.
At the European Union-Latin America and Caribbean summit in Madrid it was agreed that the conditions were not right to launch negotiations for association agreements. These political dialogue and cooperation agreements were seen as an intermediate step: the aim of the agreements is to create the conditions which would allow the negotiation of association agreements, including free trade agreements, in the future. The Heads of State and Government also defined what the main requirements were for advancing towards an association agreement, notably the achievement of deeper regional integration and the completion of the Doha Round.
I would like to take this opportunity to underline the importance of the recently negotiated agreements as an instrument towards our common goal of negotiating association agreements with these regions in the future.
We are now two years beyond one summit, on the eve of another – the Guadalajara Summit – and we must re-assess our relationship with these regions. There are many questions we should ask ourselves. To what extent are the conditions we set out in Madrid still valid in the light of recent developments? How should the absence of substantial progress in the multilateral trade negotiations affect our relations with these regions? How can we ensure that we do not inadvertently in any way undermine our principal trade objective of promoting multilateral agreements and completing the Doha Development Round? Otherwise, would we not risk the opening of such negotiations becoming a mere political gesture, as we want agreements with content that go beyond what can be agreed at multilateral level? Is there an acceptable political formula to cover all these objectives?
Regional integration remains of key importance: it can contribute to fostering political stability, economic and social development and social cohesion within each sub-region. The Commission considers that further progress towards deepening integration is a sign of political and economic maturity. How can we measure progress in regional integration? I believe the essential elements for measuring progress revolve around three fundamental elements: a fully operational institutional framework, the existence of a customs union and the reduction of obstacles to intra-regional trade."@en1
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