EFE News Agency
Bogotá, September 17, 2007

The President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, today asked for the rapid negotiation of the Association Agreement between the Andean Community (CAN) and the European Union (EU), which was launched in Bogotá, and trusts that Venezuela will soon return to the regional integration organization. 

Uribe spoke before the delegation of the European Union (EU), acting under a mandate of its 27 Member Countries, on the one hand, and the members of the CAN, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia –as host to the first round-, on the other.

The President stated that “it took us quite some time to reach this point,” the launching of the negotiations, and that “we have exercised a great deal of patience” to get here. 

But “starting today, we will have to be impatient in order to achieve this agreement in the shortest time possible,” the Colombian Head of State emphasized. 

It has been said that the negotiations could take between two and three years, which is too much, according to the President of Colombia. 

After referring to the association between the CAN and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), "which five years ago was unthinkable,” Uribe expressed his trust that “we will shortly be able to announce the return of Venezuela to the Andean Community.” 

"In our hearts, we have a space reserved here for Venezuela, with whose presence we will carry these negotiations to a successful conclusion,” the Head of State declared. 

Uribe also referred to the implications for the Andean countries of moving from a generalized system of preferences (GSP) granted by the EU to the countries in the area, which have been “incomplete and their time frame uncertain (…), a few cautious privileges” that have kept investment from reaching us, to a system in which investors can have confidence “if they are notified that an agreement guarantees access to the European Union.”  

Uribe reiterated that trade agreements "are not ideological categories,” but opportunities “for our nations, opportunities for employment, for access to technology” that produce benefits in terms of overcoming poverty.

The Head Negotiator of the European Commission, Portuguese citizen Joao Aguiar Machado, for his part, emphasized during the brief official ceremony opening the negotiations, the importance of the pillars on which they will be conducted, inasmuch as they involve a true political dialogue to strengthen relations between the two blocs. 

After noting that the CAN is the oldest integration process in Latin America, with a 38-year history, and the second after the EU, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, the high-level European official affirmed that the Andean nations “are jointly determined” to deepen and move ahead with their integration process. 

The Head Negotiator of the European Commission pointed out that these are processes that are difficult and complex, “requiring efforts and sacrifice, but that these are worthwhile,” for when all is said and done, integration is an “important asset for confronting the challenges” the countries face today and that go beyond their national boundaries.  

The alliance being sought between the EU and the CAN, stated the EU negotiator, is so we can “work together on the development of a multilateral system that reflects our principles and our values.” 

He underscored the efforts made by the CAN to move ahead with its integration effort and added that he wants to believe that those advances were motivated in part by the prospects of “our negotiations,” which pose a major challenge and which “by definition, are complex,” but that thanks to the joint efforts of the two blocs are on the verge of being launched. 

He stated that the EU has the commitment and the solidarity to “contribute to Andean integration as an element of unification, and not of division.”