Ehlers highlights consolidation of the CAN and EU opening in negotiation

EFE Agency
Lima, May 17, 2008

The Secretary General of the Andean Community (CAN), Ecuadorian citizen Freddy Ehlers, today stressed that the subregional organization “has been consolidated” in the wake of the Fifth Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union (LAC-EU), held in Lima. 

"Negotiations among countries are difficult, they are complex, but I would say that we have reached a good point, that this meeting of presidents has consolidated the unity of the Andean Community,” he pointed out in an interview with Efe.

The Presidents of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia held a meeting today with the European troika, where they ratified their will to continue negotiating as a bloc, but with flexibility, with a view to reaching a broad agreement in 2009. 

In this connection, Ehlers stressed that "the European Union was absolutely clear about its willingness to entertain Andean proposals and to give as broad an interpretation as possible of the asymmetries and different approaches and visions.” 

"I would say the exchange of views was very full to reach an exact understanding of what being as flexible as possible means,” he explained, going on later to state that these topics “will not be revealed until the negotiators receive the offers and work on them specifically.” 

Ehlers ratified the fact that the EU has opened to the possibility that the Andean countries can set aside some aspects of the negotiation, above all in the area of trade, because this proposal has yet to be discussed. 

The next step, he explained, is for “Europe to be open enough to accept that the negotiation can accommodate different viewpoints.” 

The Secretary General also pointed up the climate of “cordiality and harmony” that prevailed among the four Andean Presidents, despite differences in their proposals and the well-known political discrepancies between the Presidents of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and Colombia, Álvaro Uribe.

"The subject of trade even gave rise to some kidding by President Uribe, when he said that it looks like it is easier for us Andean people to reach an agreement on economic than on political matters.”

Ehlers pointed out that “not a single gesture of annoyance was made or offensive word spoken by anyone” and that Uribe even “approached President Correa and greeted him and spoke with him several times.” 

The association agreement being negotiated by the EU and the Andean Community is based on three pillars: political, trade and cooperation. 

The CAN Secretary General announced that the twenty-seven had agreed to address the subject of migration, which he called “complex,” because “the Andean vision is not the same as the European.” 

"But this is a priority issue for the Andean countries, he commented, and has been accepted by the Europeans; the time has come for both parties to draft their texts.” 

Ehlers emphasized that during today’s meeting “at the highest level, a clear and real commitment had been made to carry the negotiation through to a successful conclusion.”

"Europe expressed its belief that the first three rounds (of negotiation) had been very successful.  The fact is, however, that we have people for whom everything always looks bad, who look at themselves in the mirror and don’t even like their own faces,” he concluded.  EFE