Press Release on the meeting of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Members of the European Union Troika
New York, September 14, 2002.

The Andean Foreign Ministers, at the meeting today between the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers and the Members of the European Union Troika, presented the position of the Andean Community and its expectation that future relations between the two regions will evolve favorably.

Among the issues on the agenda for political dialogue, they underscored items like the war on terrorism and the worldwide drug problem and related offenses, migration flows, sustainable development, and the defense of democratic principles and human rights.

The Andean Foreign Ministers went on to emphasize the need to cooperate more closely on matters of security and the control of illegal drug production, marketing and use, stressing the connection that exists between these activities and the financial offenses resulting from money laundering that help to finance terrorist activities.

They drew attention to the fact that the Andean leaders, at the last meeting of Heads of State and of Government of the Andean Community and the European Union, during the Madrid Summit, emphasized the importance of decisions adopted by the Council of Foreign Ministers, including the Andean Charter in favor of Peace and Security, the Regional Biodiversity Strategy for the Tropical Andean Countries and the Andean Charter for the Defense and Preservation of Human Rights.

The Foreign Ministers dwelled on the importance of initiating a dialogue on the war against poverty that would involve adopting an innovative financial mechanism to contribute to the growth of democracy and good governance.

In the commercial terrain, the Andean Community acknowledged that the Andean GSP is a fundamental instrument for developing the principle of co-responsibility in fighting the universal drug scourge. The changeable and temporary nature of this instrument, however, fails to send the long-term signals that are so sorely needed for the growth of investments in the subregion.

As a result, the Foreign Ministers consider that a Fourth Generation Agreement with the European Union is needed encompassing political, economic, and commercial matters and cooperation. That Agreement should bear in mind the principles of special and differential treatment resulting from the sharp imbalances that exist in levels of development between the two regions.