Lima, November 24, 2005.- The General Secretariat of the CAN and the European Commission today signed a cooperation agreement to finance the joint appraisal being furthered by the CAN and the European Union with a view to launching the negotiation for an Association and free trade Agreement in the framework of the LAC-EU Summit to be held in Vienna in May 2006.

In a simple ceremony presided over by Andean Community Secretary General, Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón, and the Head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Peru, Ambassador Antonio Cardoso Mota, Ambassador Wagner pointed out that this agreement will not only make it possible to reach the CAN-EU joint appraisal targets but, at the same time, to deepen the Andean integration process, an essential requirement for negotiating a bloc-to-bloc agreement. “We know that much remains to be done, but the goal we have set ourselves is to be in a position to launch the negotiation of the Association Agreement next year in Vienna,” he stressed.

He further indicated that this agreement marks the standard for a new cycle of cooperation between the Andean Community and the European Union, where the deepening of the integration process, together with social cohesion and the fight against illegal drugs --with particular emphasis on alternative and sustainable development-- are the three key pillars of the 2007-2013 Cooperation Program.

Ambassador Cardoso, for his part, agreed that the European Union hopes that this agreement will facilitate the joint appraisal and make it possible to respond to the challenge shared by the EU and the CAN of creating the necessary conditions for launching the negotiation of an Association and free trade Agreement at the Vienna Summit.

The Financing Agreement between the CAN and the EU, covering a sum of one million 215 thousand euros, will make it possible within a period of twelve months to support the appraisal and the technical capacities of each of the Andean countries and of the CAN General Secretariat.

It will also permit the reinforcement of the CAN’s videoconferencing network and virtual platform; the implementation of the ARIAN customs management system; and the harmonizing of the access to the market for goods and of the capacities of the national agricultural health services.