Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-01-Speech-2-177"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030701.7.2-177"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Mr Nogueira Román’s question raises three points. First, the state of the negotiations between the Union and Mercosur; secondly, the effect of Mr Kirchner’s election as President of Argentina and, lastly, issues of economic cooperation between the Union and Mercosur to facilitate integration in that region.
Let us look first at the state of the negotiations. As you know, we relaunched the process last year and, since then, negotiators on both sides have been working relentlessly to make progress on its various aspects. These are complex negotiations, which address services and regulations and the trade in goods. Last year in Rio, we therefore adopted a schedule and we are sticking to it. Proposals on tariffs, which were furthermore of a high quality, were exchanged. Since March of this year, the pace has been relaxed. Some progress has also been made on rules of origin, investments, tenders, dispute settlement, trade facilitation, standardisation and technical regulation. This all bodes well. The March negotiations also enabled us to prepare an exchange of ideas on services, investment and on procurement contracts, which took place at the end of May, although we were rather disappointed with the proposals put forward by our Mercosur partners.
As you see, we are still actively pursuing these negotiations and we have confidence in our partners’ desire to get there. One negotiating round was concluded last week in Asunción. We must continue to make progress because much remains to be done, not least because our friends in Mercosur are anxious for the Union to make a gesture. We will only make such a gesture, should this prove necessary, in the context of an overall balance, which has not yet been fully achieved. Optimism about the state of the negotiations must, therefore, be relative.
It is probably premature at this stage to take the decision on launching the final phase of negotiations – always an important time – because there are many issues involved and this takes time. We are considering this step, particularly because these negotiations – especially in the field of agriculture – cannot be separated, in terms of a bargaining chip for the EU, from what is happening in the multilateral context of the World Trade Organisation.
We look favourably on Mr Kirchner’s election as President of Argentina and on the various statements by Presidents Lula and Kirchner on the future of Mercosur. Both of these undoubtedly wanted to convey to Mercosur, in other words Paraguay and Uruguay, to Latin America and more generally, to the entire world, their desire and their will to strengthen the process of integrating Mercosur. We can only welcome these statements. Latin American integration is one of the European Union’s political priorities and this is why we initially felt that we should negotiate with Mercosur as a whole. We therefore wish to hold ‘one-on-one’ negotiations and not ‘one-on-four’ as is done in other areas such as the North-South America free trade zone. I have also said, moreover, and have said so publicly to our partners in Mercosur, that the EU’s trade ambitions towards Mercosur are in line with Mercosur’s own ambition in the field of political, economic and commercial integration.
What means, then, are we making available to Mercosur under economic cooperation? There is first of all our action at regional level: we have a regional Mercosur/European Union strategy on contributing to the completion of Mercosur’s internal market and, for the 2000-2006 period, this amounts to just over EUR one million. We are committing more than EUR 10 million in the same period to Mercosur’s institutionalisation and there is a third chapter of assistance for civil society. Our experience as Europeans enables us to contribute to the completion of the internal market, of commercial integration, of the statistical system, of the system of veterinary and phytosanitary standards and to harmonising technical regulations; in short, to anything that requires cross-border instruments. We are familiar with these issues because we have faced them ourselves in the recent past. Furthermore, we have also developed cooperation strategies with a number of Mercosur countries involving sums of around EUR 200 million for the period that I have just mentioned. These strategies can also contribute to supporting regional integration, economic reform and social development. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay have a real need to pursue thoroughgoing reform. We shall continue to support this course of action at economic, social and political levels."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples