Lima, July 14, 2006.- Representatives of Europe’s civil society voiced the need to expressly incorporate the social dimension into the articles of the future Association Agreement between the Andean Community and the European Union and urged that the association agreement between the two blocs be comprehensive and balanced. 

This proposal is part of an Assessment of the relations between the European Union and the Andean Community approved this July 5th in Brussels by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), a 317-member EU body consisting of representatives of entrepreneurs, workers and specific activities (craftsmen, professionals, consumers, the scientific and teaching community and ecological movements, among other groups).  

The EESC points out in the document that European Commission technical or financial cooperation should be programmed for the twenty projects that make up the Andean Community’s Integral Plan for Social Development (IPSD), bearing in mind that the EU Ministers have congratulated the CAN on that Plan, considering it a “highly useful instrument for promoting social cohesion in the Andean Community.”   

It emphasizes that in the social area, the agreement should particularly promote and safeguard education and professional training and inter-university cooperation; equality and non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, etc.; equality of men and women at work; the integration of immigrants and respect for their rights; and plans to eradicate child labor, among other things. 

It is known that the European Economic and Social Committee decided on July 14, 2005 to prepare an assessment of the relations between the European Union and the Andean Community. 

A meeting of EESC representatives and delegates of the Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils and of other Andean Community civil society organizations discussed the preliminary version of that document at a meeting held on February 6 and 7 of this year at the CAN General Secretariat headquarters in Lima.