The Presidents of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, and the Vice-President of Peru, meeting in the Quirama Recinto in Antioquia, the Republic of Colombia, in the Fourteenth Andean Presidential Council,

Convinced that today the Andean Community is a community of nations closely interlinked in all areas that are moving ahead in unity toward a more advanced political cooperation to promote their harmonious and balanced development and bring about an improvement in the quality of life of their inhabitants.

Reaffirming their conviction that the deepening of the Community integration process requires the adoption of new and efficient strategy lines within the context of a multidimensional agenda that will enable them to achieve their countries’ balanced, harmonious and shared economic development, with a view toward strengthening their individual and collective capacity for fighting poverty and social exclusion.

Considering that the progress made in the Subregional integration process places the Andean Community in the position of being able to assume a role as an important and participating player in the international community, confronting the challenges imposed by present world dynamics.

Conscious that in order to strengthen and deepen the process of Andean integration in all of its dimensions, it is necessary to translate our high political will into specific and sustained efforts, particularly in regard to the application of the Andean legal provisions.

In accord regarding the need to lay the groundwork for a new stage of the integration process that will enhance the multidimensional nature of the Andean Community and allow us to move ahead with our common undertaking, resting on the political, social and economic dimensions of our integration movement, our Common Foreign Policy, the participation of social actors and organizations, border integration and development, the physical integration of South America, sustainable development and our institutions.

Agree to advance the lines of strategic action for perfecting the following core themes of the integration system:

Reinforce cooperation on issues of essential importance, such as the struggle against poverty and social exclusion; the strengthening of democracy; democratic governance; the defense and protection of human rights; security and confidence-building; the war against terrorism in all its forms and expressions; the crimes that undermine our countries’ economic stability, social welfare and public equity; the fight to control the worldwide drug problem and related offenses; the war on corruption and organized crime; the environment and sustainable development.

Boost the Common Foreign Policy, while safeguarding and enhancing our Community wealth to ensure that we secure a world position that will favor the Subregion’s interests and priorities, give it a better presence in international forums and organizations, and reinforce our political, economic and cooperative relations with third countries and other regional groups, giving preference to concerted South American, Latin American and Caribbean efforts and integration.

Give maximum priority to the design, coordination and harmonization of social policies that will lead to the development of specific coordinated strategies for social cohesion and the struggle against poverty and marginality, which will help to consolidate democracy and reinforce governance in the Andean Community, as well as open up broader spaces for the participation of social actors and organizations.

Make the approval of the Integrated Social Development Plan, as a complement to national development plans, and the creation of innovative financial mechanisms for reinforcing democratic governance and facing up to poverty, among of the first issues to be addressed.

Back the advances made in Subregional negotiations to reduce the price of medicines, the Andean Health Plan and the implementation of the Andean Health Card in which the Health Body --the Hipólito Unanue Convention-- is engaged.

Affirm the need for the Andean Community to make itself stronger by building and giving enhanced value to a common cultural vehicle that will take education, science and technology into account.

Reinforce the links of cultural exchange and cooperation among the Andean countries by establishing alliances among public and private institutions concerned with preserving and promoting Andean cultural diversity and safeguarding our countries’ cultural heritage.

Give preference to actions aimed at deepening the Andean economic space by developing instruments for policy conciliation in areas such as labor migrations, social security and safety and health at work, as well as the recognition of professional licenses and degrees.

Reaffirm the principles of the Cartagena Agreement as an instrument for promoting the growth and development of the region’s production systems and their competitiveness, the diversification of Andean exports and the complementary nature of the Andean economies.

Review the instances of noncompliance and prepare a comprehensive proposal to turn around the situation, with an established timetable, through the joint efforts of the Member Countries.

Acknowledge the importance of creating a favorable environment for the development and growth of trade, tourist and investment flows in the Andean Community.

Boost tourism as one of the basic driving forces for development and integration. Work to foster the interconnection of airline routes and integrated tourist circuits between the Subregional and South American countries. In keeping with these aims, we firmly support the initiative being fostered by the South American Ministers of Tourism, “Discovering South America for the South Americans.”

Strive to ensure that the exchange policies adopted by the Member Countries will contribute to the stability and growth of trade flows in an effort that the competent authorities should undertake.

Recognize the advances made in the free trade zone and in consolidating the customs union and the current status of the common external tariff and the price stabilization mechanism.

As a result, and with a view to creating the Common Market, we ratify that the latter is an effective instrument for making the most of the trade among and development of the Community Member Countries that will guarantee the unhampered movement of goods, services, capital and people within the Community territory, and for efficiently gaining an equitable position in the international market.

Encourage the adoption of a Common Agricultural Policy as a mechanism to secure the development and competitiveness of the agricultural and agribusiness sectors and the rural development of the Andean countries.

Consolidate the Border Integration and Development Policy by supporting the establishment of comprehensive development programs for the border regions, particularly the Border Integration Zones, in order to turn these regions into vehicles for reinforcing Andean integration and improving the quality of life of the Subregion’s inhabitants. Also to promote the establishment of Border Integration Zones with third countries.

Actively expedite the execution of the “South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative” (IIRSA) with an interrelated vision of the different focal points of integration and development, in order to build a vehicle that will promote further interaction among our nations, more competitiveness and the development of the Andean economies. .

Move ahead with the design and execution of Community programs on strategic fronts, such as the environment, energy development, and disaster prevention and measures that will step up sustainable development in the Subregion.

Give special attention to the surveillance and enforcement of Community legal provisions and to building up the General Secretariat as the strategist for and executor of the key issues on the multidimensional agenda.

Reaffirm the institutional importance of the Andean Community Court of Justice, whose efforts help to strengthen the Andean Integration System and contribute significantly to juridical stability and certainty in the Subregion.

In order to embark upon a second generation of integration policies that are consonant with the new dimensions of the process and the demands of our peoples, we agree upon the following

1. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to propose the elements that would serve as the basis for the possible construction of a governance agenda for the Andean Subregion that would take into consideration the political, economic and social challenges and allow for the promotion of social inclusion and equity, as well as of credibility, in democratic institutions.

2. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to submit to the next Meeting of the Andean Presidential Council draft Andean Common Security Policy guidelines that would develop the parameters of the Lima Commitment and would provide for, among other things, specific plans of action against terrorism and corruption, based on the work that the High-Level Group on Security and Confidence-Building does.

We deem it essential in this context to expedite the start up of all aspects of the Andean Plan for the Prevention, Combating and Eradication of Small, Light Weapons and its presentation during the Biannual Meeting of States on the Implementation of the United Nations Action Program on the subject.

3. To Instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to adopt a Program to Disseminate and Implement the Andean Charter for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, in order to promote the full effectiveness of that instrument within our Community.

4. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, with the support of the Executive Committee on the Andean Cooperation Plan for the Control of Illegal Drugs and Related Offenses, to move ahead with the application of the Operational Plan, based on the priorities that Committee identifies.

5. To direct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to adopt an Andean Plan to Fight Corruption that would encompass both coordinated Subregional efforts and joint participation in international forums.

6. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to lay down the guidelines for a Subregional Food Security Policy that would provide for specific action plans with regard to, among other things, the fight against poverty and marginality, in keeping with the stipulations that the Integrated Social Development Plan establishes.

7. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, in developing the guidelines for the Common Foreign Policy, to continue the negotiations aimed at the signing of a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union that should facilitate the launching of the negotiation of an Association Agreement. The Council should, in addition, hold the First CAN-MERCOSUR and Chile Political Dialogue and Cooperation Meeting and further develop the existing lines of efforts with China, Russia and India, as well as with Japan.

To urge the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to expedite the creation of a Mechanism for Political Dialogue and Cooperation with the United States and Canada and also to instruct the General Secretariat to study the means for interlinking the Andean Community with the EFTA, the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Cuba, particularly in regard to the Economic Complementary Agreement with the latter country.

8. To request the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, in its implementation of the approved guidelines, to formulate the Integrated Social Development Plan together with the Ministers responsible for the social area, the General Secretariat and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).

9. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, in close coordination with the Advisory Council of Labor Ministers, to promote measures to establish regulations for the Decisions on labor migrations, social security and safety and health at work. Also to supplement the socio-labor advances made by adopting the necessary legal provisions to Recognize Professional Licenses, Degrees and Accreditations in the Subregion.

10. To appeal to the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to organize effective mechanisms to ensure the participation of the social actors and organizations in developing the Andean integration process, with the technical support of the General Secretariat. In this connection, we recommend the immediate establishment of the national chapters that would allow the first meetings of the “Working Committee on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights” and the “Andean Working Committee for the Defense of Consumer Rights with the Participation of Civil Society,” to be held, respectively, in November 2003 in Ecuador and at the General Secretariat headquarters on a date yet to be defined.

11. To immediately return to the tasks entrusted to the Ministries responsible for our countries’ educational, cultural and science and technology policies, under the supervision of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and with the technical support of the General Secretariat and the contributions of the Andrés Bello Convention and the Simón Bolívar University, so that at our next regular meeting they can submit guidelines for the adoption of Community policies in each of these program areas aimed at improving the quality, coverage and relevance of education, promoting and respecting the Subregion’s cultural diversity, exercising interculturality and developing technological innovation, among other things, in keeping with the Presidential Guidelines of the Eleventh Andean Presidential Council of Cartagena de Indias.

12. To instruct the competent national authorities to consolidate the efforts underway in the Subregion to control illegal trafficking in cultural goods and to promote the application of specific new mechanisms, such as the red list of endangered cultural goods in Latin America; in this way, they will help to protect the tangible and intangible, archeological, historical, ethnological, paleontological, and artistic heritage of the Andean Community Member Countries.

13. To instruct the competent national authorities to accede to the International Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage during the next UNESCO General Conference, inasmuch as its application will make it possible to reinforce national policies to protect the memory and identity of the Andean peoples and cultures.

14. To endorse with interest the proposal of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization and the Andean Health Body – the Hipólito Unanue Convention that creates an “Andean Commission on Investment in Health” in order to move ahead with a joint strategy for developing the health sector and to apply to PAHO/WHO for the necessary funds.

15. To direct the General Secretariat, in coordination with the national authorities of the Member Countries, to promote cooperation among the Subregional communications media for exchanges of common interest in the areas of tourism, education, culture, development, etc., in order to build up their common values and disseminate the wide diversity of Andean culture.

16. To instruct the General Secretariat to submit to the Presidential Council, by December 2003, an evaluation of the Andean integration process with regard to each of the Member Countries, together with the necessary recommendations.

17. To entrust the Commission with holding a special meeting by September 2003, at which the Member Countries should examine the causes of the failure to comply with Community regulatory provisions and define a timetable to resolve such instances of noncompliance.

18. To exhort the Ministers responsible for trade to maintain effective mechanisms for reaching concerted positions in forums for trade negotiations in order to optimize the benefits for the Andean Community Member Countries.

19. In keeping with the stipulations of the Framework Agreement signed by the Andean Community and MERCOSUR countries in December 2002, to direct the Commission, with the assistance of the General Secretariat, to coordinate the establishment of a working plan and a timetable to serve as a navigation chart for the negotiations between the member countries of the two groups, with a view to putting the finishing touches to the CAN – MERCOSUR Free Trade Agreement by December 31, 2003, at the latest.

20. To emphasize the importance of the trade negotiations for positioning the Member Countries in the international context and keeping open their possibilities for advancing in the trade negotiations with third countries or groups of countries.

To foster a process of political reflection within the Enlarged Andean Presidential Council in reference to the FTAA and the Andean Community’s international positioning, without neglecting the advancement of the negotiations being furthered by the countries within the FTAA.

21. To instruct the General Secretariat to proceed with studies complementary to those being conducted by the CAF under the Andean Competitiveness Program (PAC) and the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA), in order to enable it to put forward proposals to the Member Countries for developing and furthering regional Andean policies to enhance competitiveness and productivity, particularly in the spheres of technology, industry, services and physical infrastructure, in order to gain spaces in the international markets..

22. Bearing in mind that the Andean Community as a whole is the world’s second leading coffee producer and exporter, it is important for the Member Countries to participate actively in discussions about how to overcome the crisis in this sector. Therefore, the Council recognizes how significant the attendance of the Andean Community Member Countries is -- insofar as they are able to attend-- at meetings of the International Coffee Organization, so that, by acting in coordination, they may take part in designing the policies and measures that will define the future of coffee growing in the world.

These efforts at coordination will be reinforced by the Andean Community Ad Hoc Group on the Coffee Chain, a forum that allows for dialogue and coordination among the different actors in the Andean coffee sector.

23. We instructed the Commission, within no more than 30 days and on the basis of prior deliberations of the Ad Hoc Group, to hold a special meeting for the sole purpose of adopting decisions that will promote more development of and a growing and sustained trade in the oil seed chain.

24. To ensure that the Commission, with the participation of the Ministers of Agriculture and no later than September 30, 2003, takes a decision regarding the Common Andean Agriculture Policy, based on the consultations with the corresponding organizations and with the production sectors, to which end the Andean Agricultural Committee will meet in Caracas in July.

25. To instruct the General Secretariat to draw up a working program, by September 30, 2003, to advance the liberalization of Subregional trade in services.

26. To instruct the pertinent institutions to implement the recommendations of the GRANADUA Project, with the assistance of the General Secretariat, in order to interconnect the Customhouses through the adoption of the Integrated Andean Tariff (ARIAN), the Sole Customs Declaration (DUA), and the harmonization of Special Customs Systems and other mechanisms to avoid distortions, including those caused by differences in the preferences granted to third countries, and expedite the effort to control smuggling and tax evasion in the trade between the Andean countries.

27. To emphasize that the effort to control smuggling and tax evasion require the interconnection of the Customhouses of the Member Countries, preferably by electronic means.

28. To urge the High-Level Group for Border Integration and Development, based on the accomplishments to date, to establish a Comprehensive Border Integration and Development Plan that will define the necessary juridical, technical and financial instruments; and to ensure the participation of the Member Country planning and cooperation institutions.

29. To request the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the CAF to continue providing technical and financial support to the Border Integration and Development Projects Bank and for all other efforts that the High-Level Group for Border Integration and Development decides upon.

30. To instruct the competent national authorities of the Andean Community countries to ensure that their plans and working programs provide for backing to execute the South American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative (IIRSA) and facilitate the coordination of plans, projects and investments in an effort to reconcile and to harmonize both the regulation and the associated policies.

31. To instruct the Advisory Council of Foreign Ministers, in keeping with Andean Community Decision 501, to promote the establishment of Border Integration Zones with third countries adjacent to the Andean Community Member Countries.

32. To instruct the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Commission, in coordination with the Council of Ministers of Energy, Electricity, Hydrocarbons and Mines, and with a view to maximizing the advantages of the Andean Community Member Countries in the area of energy, to promote the construction of the Community energy market and develop energy services with a high value added, for the benefit of sustainable Andean development, as well as to adopt a hydrocarbon and energy safety-oriented strategy for its international insertion.

33. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, in coordination with the environmental authorities, to shortly carry out the Andean Plan to follow up the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg and that Summit’s Plan of Implementation, including Subregional coordination with the Commission on Sustainable Development of the United Nations (SDC) and to ensure the execution of the Regional Biodiversity Strategy with the technical and financial support of strategic allies like the IDB, the CA, Conservation International, UNCTAD and Condesan, among others.

34. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, in coordination with the national authorities responsible for environmental issues, to take the necessary measures to support the creation of the “Open Ad Hoc Group” proposed in the “Cusco Declaration,” so that at the next meeting of the Group of Similar Megadiverse Countries, it can put forward a proposal containing, among other things, mechanisms to guarantee the fair and equitable distribution of benefits deriving from the use of the biodiversity, as provided for in the Johannesburg Declaration.

35. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to expedite measures to prevent and repair the damage caused by natural disasters and external meteorological phenomena, worsened by global warning, particularly “the Niño Phenomenon,” bearing in mind the recommendations of the Pre-Andean Program the CAF is carrying out in coordination with the countries.

36. To expedite Andean initiatives and projects for the protection and sustainable development of the mountain ecosystems of the Andean Subregion through the Andean Committee of Environmental Authorities.

37. To instruct the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Commission to back and reinforce the Andean Integration System by adjusting it to the new strategic direction given to the process by, among other things, promoting sectorial meetings of Ministers to analyze and formulate proposals within their respective spheres of competence, and ensuring their participation in the discussions of the pertinent Community bodies.

38. To instruct the General Secretariat, in coordination with the Andean Court of Justice, to put forward for the Member Countries’ consideration, proposals that allow them to make use of extrajudicial conflict settlement methods within the framework of the Community legal system.

39. To congratulate the Member Countries that have fulfilled the mandate of the Trujillo Modifying Protocol with regard to the direct election of Andean Parliamentarians and to urge the national Congresses and the electoral bodies of the countries that have not taken steps to implement this mandate, to do so as soon as possible.

Having had the opportunity to receive reports from and engage in dialogues with the representatives of the bodies and institutions of the Andean Integration System, the Andean Presidential Council extends its congratulations on the work done by those bodies and institutions in the areas of jurisdiction, people’s representation and social participation, health and education, and financial and monetary support. This reveals the vitality of the Andean integration process and the immense potential offered by its institutions.

We wish to draw attention to the contributions made by the General Secretariat in defining the new multidimensional agenda for the Andean integration process and to offer our backing for the development of the core themes envisaged in this Declaration.

We, the Presidents of the Andean Community Member Countries, express our appreciation to Doctor Alvaro Uribe Vélez, President of the Republic of Colombia, and to the Colombian people, particularly the inhabitants of Antioquia, for the warm hospitality we have received and for the excellent organization that has enabled this Summit to be a success. For that reason, we agree that this document will be known as the " Quirama Declaration.”

Quirama Recinto, Antioquia, Republic of Colombia, June 28, 2003.