2006 EU-Latin America Summit

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 4th EU-Latin America Summit on May 12 and May 13, 2006 in Vienna was a summit conference of the heads of state and government of the EU countries and the states of Latin America and the Caribbean . The fourth EU-Latin America Summit continued the strategic partnership between the two regions that had begun in 1999 with the fourth conference. Its key data were:

  • Preparatory meeting of foreign ministers on the evening of May 11th
  • Summit meeting of the 61 heads of state or government on May 12th
(in addition to the plenary session, participation in 3 topics)
  • Subregional meeting on May 13th
(a total of 12/13 May over 200 discussion groups)

The conferences in 2006 were framed by a bi-regional cultural festival called “ Onda Latina ”, which took place across Austria between April 2006 and the beginning of June 2006.

Issues and problems

The summit took place as part of Austria's EU presidency and had the general topic of "Strengthening the bi-regional strategic association". In addition to issues of political-economic cooperation, external relations and the social problems of South America , he dealt with the EU- Mercosur negotiations.

The last of these negotiations failed in 2004 and the talks only cautiously resumed in the last few months. The timing of months prepared the meeting was chosen by EU and South America a favorable trade policy and diplomatic background: A few months after the last Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization WTO in Hong Kong - left unresolved in many questions - could the Vienna Summit to continue trade talks in abgeändertem frame . The tough negotiation process of recent years shows that it is hardly possible within the framework of the WTO to do justice to the economic and political diversity of the member states and issues.

61 heads of state and several 100 high-ranking politicians from the 35 American countries involved and the 25 EU states as well as Romania and Bulgaria attended the summit . Some of them also took part in parts of the simultaneous Alternatives Summit. The Austrian capital deployed around 1,500 police officers a day to ensure the safety of state guests. It was the largest gathering of state and government representatives since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 .

Parallel to this conference is one of NGOs instead organized an alternative summit, where on ways to improve the living conditions and the role of European industrial companies is discussed in Latin America.

Working meeting of foreign ministers

The last preparatory meeting of the EU and US foreign ministers took place on May 11 , the eve of the EU-Latin America summit . They discussed the text of the “Vienna Declaration”, which is to be adopted by the heads of state and government. The President of the Council Ursula Plassnik (Austria) sees a "breath of fresh air" in the multilateral talks, in which the UN reform, the peacebuilding commission, the fight against drugs and topics of sustainable development were also discussed.

Since the European Union is the largest donor in the area of ​​development cooperation for the Latin America / Caribbean region, the agreement on the EU budget 2007-2013 gave the opportunity to secure "the necessary funds for the next few years". According to Plassnik, important issues are also social cohesion, the vulnerability of smaller economies and the role of women "in a post-conflict society, in peacemaking and promoting peace". The already existing cooperation mechanism is to be further developed on the very complex drug problem, in which Bolivia (see Evo Morales ) and Colombia in particular are breaking new ground.

The next "EU-LAK" conference will take place in Peru in 2008 .

Subregional meetings

As the summit pursues not only political goals but also deeper cooperation in development and economic policy and, in particular, aims to start an EU-Mercosur free trade area , negotiations will be intensified on Saturday, May 13, 2006 in subregional meetings.

The multilateral political issues are negotiated in the following areas:

In addition, the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce and its South American partners and various projects are organizing the EULAC Business Summit from May 11th to 13th .

Results, opinions and problems

After the summit ended on Friday evening, the question arose whether there were more concrete results in addition to the “Vienna Declaration”. In an interview with ORF , the EU Council President and Austria's Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik named three specific points:

  • EU commitment to provide more scholarships to South American students in Europe
  • Agreed protection for human rights activists, what u. a. had been requested by NGO delegations at the simultaneous Alternatives Summit
  • an aid program for Haiti decided on at the suggestion of Chile .

South American heads of state praised the intensive and lively discussions , which, however, highlighted the major political differences between some countries. The dispute between the advocates of free trade (EU and Central America ) and those who want to restrict the power of international corporations even against existing law was noticeable . Strong criticism was expressed of Bolivia and Venezuela , which in turn criticized the bilateral agreements of some states with the USA as a new dependency (Austria's bishops had already said something similar in April, see 2nd web link).

Evo Morales (Bolivia) defended the nationalization of natural gas production without compensation , but promised more (future) legal security for investors. He and Venezuela's head of state Hugo Chávez see themselves as fighters for the “little people”; the latter snubbed the organizers of two receptions (EU and Austria) and instead took part in discussions on the alternative scene. Venezuela left the Andean Community a few weeks ago, which is now making economic negotiations with the EU more difficult.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan , Co-Chairman Wolfgang Schüssel and others emphasized the importance of multilateral development cooperation , but that legal certainty is the basis for it. Brazil is now pushing the market for biofuels in order to be less dependent on energy imports from Bolivia and is aiming for sustainability in fuel production by 2010 (currently 45%).

The Argentinian samba dancer and environmental activist Evangelina Carrozzo hit the headlines on Friday by wearing a bikini and holding an environmental poster in her hand.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sub-regional meetings . Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Retrieved March 18, 2019.