Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-01-Speech-4-033"
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"en.20010301.2.4-033"2
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"Mr President, the two rapporteurs have already mentioned the essential points. Many thanks to both of them for their detailed explanation, first here in the House and secondly in their reports. The association agreements with Chile and also of course with Mercosur are valued highly by the European Union. Therefore we support the Commission in its negotiations and also regret of course that the European Parliament is not yet formally involved in the definition of negotiating mandates. Turning to the matter in hand itself, and I speak now on behalf of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, we feel that the free trade area which we wish to establish with both Chile and Mercosur must conform to WTO rules. Secondly, we do not want to damage the regional economic and trade relations between Chile and her neighbouring countries but rather to encourage these relations.
This is a matter of urgency, a point also emphasised by Mr Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra. We do not want to wait until the round of WTO negotiations has been concluded. Let me remind you as well that the new Bush administration in America has already announced its intention to make the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) a main focus of its external relations. The question then immediately arises: Do we want to leave Latin America to the United States, in a kind of division of tasks, whereby the United States takes care of Latin America and Europe takes care of Eastern Europe, or do we want some kind of presence in Latin America? I feel that it would be neither in our interest nor in the interest of Latin Americans if the world were divided into two in this way.
When all is said and done, I believe that there should be a regulation which promotes the integration of the South American continent and also takes account of the historic links between Europe and Latin America. I would also like to say, as regards our policy on Latin America in general, that I urge the Commission, the Council and also us here in Parliament, to give Latin America a higher profile in our external relations and in our debates.
Unfortunately, and I must once again mention this here, we no longer have at our disposal as important an instrument as Irela, the Institute for European and Latin American relations, which provided great assistance in the past, even occasionally when dealing with more delicate matters. This is now regrettably as dead as a doornail.
I would incidentally like to give an example of just how important this institute was in Latin America. Only recently, a member of the Irela supervisory board, Celso Lafer, was appointed Brazil’s foreign minister. This then shows what a high profile we gave previously to our relations with Latin America.
In this respect, I would ask the Commission, together with Parliament, to look for a solution to enable a sensible replacement regulation to be found and to enable us to have at our disposal an instrument that can give these historic and important relations with Latin America the profile they deserve."@en1
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