Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-04-23-Speech-3-033"
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"Mr President, Mr Salafranca, I can say that the Commission has put every possible effort into making this Summit a real success. As Mr Schulz has pointed out, and the Minister has just said, Lima really has to be an opportunity to give a strong impetus to relations between Latin America and Europe.
My replies are not comprehensive, but the debate has been very useful and it will certainly add clarification to the Lima Summit. The Summit will enable us to step up the dialogue with the region and coordinate our efforts better on important international deadlines, especially for the environment. It is also an opportunity for us to see how we can support democratic responses to the structural problems inherent in social cohesion. Certainly the European institutions need to coordinate their efforts to differentiate their approach, to adapt it to the problems of each of the states in the region.
Finally, I should like to welcome the work of EuroLat. EuroLat, the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, was set up after the 2006 Vienna Summit. It has already made a valuable contribution to cooperation with the region, whilst strengthening the democratic will on both sides. In that connection, we are sure that, with the special links it has with the region through EuroLat, the European Parliament will act decisively in ensuring that the association between the European Union and the countries in the region plays an increasingly important strategic role.
Once again I should like to thank all the Members who have spoken and provided clarification in preparation for the Lima Summit.
As many of you, including Mr Schulz, have stressed, we have many shared values. There is joint support for multilateralism and there is an undoubted need for close cooperation between the European Union and the Latin American countries if we want our influence to be felt in an improved global organisation. If we want reforms in the major international institutions, we shall only achieve that through a fairly far-reaching agreement between Latin America and the European Union. There is no other region in the world with which we are working as closely as Latin America at a multilateral level.
Mr President, I should now like to reply briefly to a few questions. The first relates to the hostages. Obviously the Commission has systematically supported all efforts to reach a humanitarian agreement on the release of all hostages. The Commission is, of course, very sensitive to the speeches that have raised this problem.
I should like to say a word about Cuba. Certainly, as the Minister has said, Cuba will not be the central issue at this Lima meeting, but all the same I want to say that the policy of the European Union is one of constructive engagement. We are not in favour of a policy of isolation or sanctions. Our Commissioner, Louis Michel, was in Cuba recently. We are prepared to cooperate with Cuba on areas of common interest, but obviously our dialogue with Cuba includes the human rights issue.
We also want to make progress on the association agreements. We intend to make progress with Mercosur. We also want to reach a conclusion in 2009 with the Andean Community.
I am going to talk about a few points that have been raised in this very interesting debate. The point raised by Madame Belohorská, access to water, is very important and the issue has been included in the draft statement for the Lima Summit. The Commission is backing water access projects and programmes in several countries.
Participation by civil society has also been mentioned. Civil society will be organising two events in preparation for the Lima Summit: the organised civil society conference, ESOSOC, and the conference of NGOs, non-organised societies. The Commission has provided financial backing for those conferences and a report will be presented on them at the Lima Summit.
The question of food prices has been raised and it is true that the rise in food prices will certainly affect Latin America, where over a third of the population is already living in poverty. In some countries, such as El Salvador, people are heavily dependent on food. The increased food prices will obviously have a profound effect on a population that is already very vulnerable. This issue is of course linked to the strategy on biofuels. That is a delicate issue, which it will certainly be worth discussing.
The position of women in Latin America has been mentioned. The Commission is extremely worried about the situation in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Guatemala. We are fully aware of the position and are trying to combat the problem. We are grateful to the European Parliament for its work on the subject."@en1
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