Political Declaration: The Madrid Commitment
EU - Latin America & Caribbean Summit
Madrid, 17 May 2002

We, the Heads of State and Government of the European Union and of Latin America and the Caribbean, meeting in Madrid, are committed to advancing our bi-regional strategic partnership based on the Declaration and the Plan of Action adopted at the First Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1999. Our history and culture, together with the values and principles we share, are the basis of this privileged relationship and our common approach to the main international issues.

We need to face together the serious challenges and seize the opportunities of the twenty-first century. In a spirit of mutual respect, equality and solidarity, we will strengthen our democratic institutions and nurture the processes of modernisation in our societies taking into account the importance of sustainable development, poverty eradication, cultural diversity, justice and social equity. We believe that furthering our integration processes and increasing trade and investment are important means of enhancing access to the benefits of globalisation.

Therefore, to develop a solid bi-regional strategic partnership and as a result of our discussions today, we undertake the following commitments:

In the political field

1. To strengthen the multilateral system on the basis of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.

2. To reinforce our democratic institutions and the rule of law, we will strengthen judicial systems ensuring equal treatment under the law and promoting and protecting respect for human rights.

3. To welcome the imminent establishment and effective functioning of the International Criminal Court, and to seek universal adherence to the Rome Statute.

4. To combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations - which threatens our democratic systems, liberties and development, as well as international peace and security - in accordance with the UN Charter and with full respect for international law, including human rights and humanitarian law provisions. We are committed to strengthening our political, legal and operational co-operation mechanisms, and to promote the conclusion of, and adherence to, all international conventions relating to terrorism and the implementation of UN resolutions on the matter.

5. To strengthen our co-operation to combat the scourges of illicit drugs and related crimes, corruption and organised crime, by enhancing co-ordination mechanisms, combating the sources of funding of drug production and trafficking, and preventing their use in the financing of terrorism and criminal activities world-wide.

6. To eradicate racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and in this regard to work together in the implementation of the commitments of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in the World Conference of 2001.

7. To promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as a general policy and as an effective means of combating poverty and achieving sustainable and equitable development.

8. To promote and protect the well being of each child in accordance with the document "A World Fit for Children" agreed at the UN special session on Children (New York, 8-10 May 2002).

9. To reinforce bi-regional political dialogue in international fora and consultations in the UN system and in major UN Conferences on the main questions of the international agenda.

10. We reject the repeated violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by illegal groups in Colombia, and condemn terrorist attacks and kidnappings, including those in recent days. We also support the search for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Colombia.

11. To give every encouragement to Guatemala and Belize as they seek to work towards a peaceful, honourable and definitive settlement of their territorial dispute through the facilitation process under the auspices of the OAS.

12. To call on all parties concerned by the political crisis in Haiti to increase their efforts to reinforce democracy and to create the conditions conducive to an early and full resumption of co-operation between Haiti and the international community, in order to stop the deterioration of the living standards of the Haitian people.

In the economic field

13. To increase efforts in our bi-regional co-operation and to promote economic growth to combat poverty through, inter alia, the strengthening of our democratic institutions, macroeconomic stability, the closing of the technological gap, wider access to, and better quality of, education, health care and social protection. In this respect we will co-operate in areas such as improving the efficiency of public institutions, furthering regional integration processes; encouraging dynamism in the small and medium size enterprises sector; and fostering infrastructural development. We encourage the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, to put forward initiatives and inform the bi-regional mechanisms.

14. To address the challenges faced by small economies and in particular by small island developing states.

15. To promote trade and investment flows for sustainable economic growth and the equitable distribution of their benefits through a more open, secure, non-discriminatory and transparent legal and entrepreneurial environment.

16. We express our satisfaction with the conclusion of the negotiations of an Association Agreement between the European Union and Chile. This new achievement adds to the first Association Agreement between our two regions, which gave a clear impetus to political, trade and investment, and co-operation relations between the European Union and Mexico.

We emphasise our commitment to the ongoing negotiations between the EU and MERCOSUR and note in this context that the political, institutional and co-operation chapters are virtually completed. We welcome the progress made so far on the trade and commercial chapters and the adoption of the package of trade facilitation measures, and are confident that both parties will continue to make substantive further progress with a view to successfully conclude the negotiation process as soon as possible.

17. We welcome the decision of the Caribbean along with the other Member States of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group to formally launch in September 2002 Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations with the European Union in the framework of the Cotonou Agreement. We welcome the new initiatives to negotiate political and co-operation Agreements between the EU and Central America and between the EU and the Andean Community as well as the decision to strengthen co-operation on trade, investments and economic relations. The achievement of the objectives of such agreements and the strengthening of co-operation should establish conditions under which, building on the outcome of the Doha Work Programme, which we have committed to complete by the end of 2004, feasible and mutually beneficial Association Agreements, including FTA, could be negotiated between the EU and Central America and between the EU and the Andean Community.

18. We welcome and support the present efforts of the Argentinean authorities to complete a sound and comprehensive economic programme, which shall enable successful negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and other financial organisations. The Argentinean authorities have our support to achieve this goal in order to overcome the present situation this nation is undergoing.

19. To work expeditiously on the Doha Work Programme in order to achieve further trade liberalisation and the clarification, improvement and strengthening of multilateral rules, as applicable, with a view to ensuring that the V Ministerial Conference in Mexico paves the way for the successful conclusion of the negotiations foreseen in the Doha Declaration, by the end of 2004. We underline in this regard the importance of the development provisions of the Doha Declaration, including the implementation of the work programme on special and differential treatment to help the integration of developing countries into the world economy.

20. To work together to contribute to the success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg in August 2002. We look forward to an action oriented outcome which contains both global commitments to sustainable development and partnership between governments, civil society and the private sector, and which reaffirms the commitments made at the Rio Conference in 1992 and the implementation of Agenda 21.

21. To work together to protect the environment with particular emphasis on the modification of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, the conservation of biological diversity, the global ecosystem and the sustainable use of natural resources. We will work to achieve universal ratification and the entry into force of the Kyoto protocol at the earliest possible stage.

22. To act on the commitments agreed at the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, especially by mobilising international and domestic resources, putting in place internal and international enabling environments for poverty reduction, substantially increasing co-operation for development, and by pursuing relief measures to deal with the problem of unsustainable external debt in developing countries. We will also press for the full implementation of the Monterrey consensus.

23. To improve the functioning of the global financial system taking into account the concerns of developing countries and to actively participate in ongoing international efforts to reform the international financial system.

24. To promote the speedy and effective implementation of the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, noting that some developing countries are also creditors.

25. To welcome the introduction of the Euro, whose contribution to the increased transparency of our economic relations is fully recognised; to acknowledge the potential contribution of the Euro to further stimulate trade and investment growth between the two regions.

26. To firmly reject all measures of unilateral character and with extraterritorial effect, which are contrary to international law and the commonly accepted rules of free trade. We agreed that this type of practice poses a serious threat to multilateralism.

27. To work together to develop Information Society by enhancing access to information and communication technologies and to seize the opportunities provided by these technologies in priority areas such as their application in government services.

Co-operation in the cultural, education, scientific, technological, social and human fields

28. To preserve our capabilities to develop, promote and respect cultural diversity.

29. To create more opportunities in our regions for education, culture and access to knowledge as keys to success in the twenty-first century. We encourage the strengthening of the ongoing Alfa Programme for institutional co-operation in the field of higher education. We also welcome the @LIS programme for the development of the Information Society, as well as a new similar interlinked programme for the Caribbean, and the new EU Scholarship Programme with Latin America.

30. To recommend the development, approval and promotion of the 2002-2004 Action Plan for building a European Union - Latin America and Caribbean Common Area of Higher Education.

31. To carry out an integrated analysis of the different issues of migration between our regions, which has brought and continuous to bring great benefits to both, to implement solutions and to guarantee the full respect of the fundamental rights of migrant workers and their families, in accordance with international law and national legislation.

32. To combat HIV/AIDS through programmes of prevention, treatment and support, in particular in the countries most affected, bearing in mind the right to adequate levels of health care and the need to promote greater access to medicines.

33. To co-operate in the promotion of preparedness for natural disasters and the mitigation of their consequences.

We welcome the satisfactory results and proposals of the EU-LAC Ministerial meetings on Higher Education (Paris, 3-4 November 2000), Science and Technology (Brasilia, 21-22 March 2002), Information Society (Sevilla, 26-27 April 2002) and Social Security (Valencia, 14-15 May 2002), which represent a meaningful contribution to the building of the bi-regional strategic partnership.

We approve the Assessment report and adopt the document on Common Values and Positions.

We mandate the bi-regional mechanisms to continue to monitor the follow-up to the Summits with the support, as applicable, of the international financial institutions involved in bi-regional co-operation programmes. In this context, a meeting of the Senior Officials will be held, during the second semester of 2002, to discuss the follow-up of the Madrid Summit. The meeting should include a discussion, inter alia, on the objectives and expected results of the bi-regional meeting on Co-operation to be held in Costa Rica before the end of 2002.

We gratefully accept the invitation to hold the Third EU-LAC Summit in Mexico in 2004.

We express our deep gratitude to the Government and people of Spain for all their courtesy and support, which ensured the successful conclusion of the Madrid Summit.