In official ceremony of assumption
Freddy Ehlers outlines his key areas of action and asks Foreign Ministers to set the integration course for the twenty-first century

Sustainable development to be a key Andean Community objective

Lima, Feb. 22, 2007. Ecuadorean Freddy Ehlers today outlined the key areas of action of his administration as Secretary General of the Andean Community and asked the Foreign Ministers and Ministers Plenipotentiary of the CAN to “chart the course of Andean integration for the twenty-first century" and to hand down the necessary guidelines to strengthen the integration process.  

Addressing the Foreign Ministers, Ministers of Trade, Andean Parliamentarians, Representatives of International Organizations, Ambassadors and other persons present, Ehlers spoke about the key areas of action: he will work unceasingly with the General Secretariat of Mercosur to build the South American Community; he will encourage the advance toward an Association Agreement with the European Union, based on mutual respect and trust; he will promote trade, political, cultural and social integration with the Asia-Pacific countries; and he will strengthen relations with Chile, Mexico and the United States.   

He stated that a pressing topic requiring urgent attention is climate change. “This General Secretariat proposes, Messrs. Ministers, that this be the subject of our special concern, so that we may design a different alternative for development that will lead us to form what Ecuadorean President Correa calls the Great Sustainable South American Nation,” he pointed out. 

The new Secretary General summarized the accomplishments of the Andean Community:

- It has created over 600 thousand new direct jobs since 1993.

- Any Andean citizen may travel to any part of the Andean Community using only his or her national identification document.

- Colombia’s exports to the other Andean countries have increased almost six-fold since 1992, rising from 400 million to 2 thousand million dollars; those of Bolivia, almost five-fold, from 86 million to 400 million; those of Peru, from 180 million to one thousand million, and those of Ecuador have increased more than ten-fold, from 160 million to 1,600 million dollars.

- Exports among the CAN Member Countries overall rose from 800 million to 5 thousand million dollars.

- We have an Andean Human Rights Charter.

- We have common regulations and legal systems that give investors confidence in our countries.

- The Andean Court of Justice guarantees the commercial rights of not only States, but also of any citizen.

- We have Andean Parliamentarians elected through direct voting.

Freddy Ehlers rendered tribute to the Andean and the South American women and, in that context, thanked the women ministers who “are writing a new history” and announced the appointment, for the very first time, of a woman as Director General of the institution and of an indigenous woman as an international official.

The Bolivian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, David Choquehuanca, for his part, welcomed Freddy Ehlers to the important position of Secretary General, at a moment when there are noticeable trends that are both threatening and hopeful for the future of the Andean region and of the planet. 

Choquehuanca brought up the need to promote a more integral CAN, one that is less trade-centered and that is able to reinforce social policies already adopted with regard to education, health, migration, and labor rights, etc.