Lima, April 25, 2005. Andean Community Secretary General, Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón, stressed today that over 80% of the cases of noncompliance within the Community have been satisfactorily resolved, either through a pretrial process of before the Court of Justice, demonstrating the highly effective nature of the Andean Dispute Settlement System.

Even so, at the Quito Summit (July 2004), the Andean Heads of State themselves decided the system needed perfecting to make it even more effective and efficient, with a view to deepening the integration process and coping with new challenges such as, for example, the construction of the South American Community of Nations and the negotiation of an Association Agreement with the European Union.

Ambassador Wagner made this affirmation during the opening session of the First Meeting of the High-Level Ad Hoc Group to Perfect the Andean Dispute Settlement System, which was also attended by the Head of the Delegation of the European Commission, Ambassador Mendel Goldstein, and the President of the CAN Court of Justice, Moisés Troconis.

Wagner pointed out that the surveillance and observance of Community legislation is even more important in a scenario where the CAN has a greater international presence, and so the CAN Commission understood when it adopted, as part of the program to deepen Andean integration, a series of recommendations to strengthen the dispute settlement mechanism and to form a High-Level Ad Hoc Group and put it into operation.

This group will be responsible for identifying proposals for that build-up, including proposals for national judges to make greater use of Community law and the possibility of arbitration proceedings between private parties and Andean Community bodies.

Ambassador Mendel Goldstein, for his part, announced that the European Union wants to support the Andean integration process and for that reason has several projects underway, such as the EU-CAN Cooperation Project on Trade-related Technical Assistance, one of whose first activities is the meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on dispute settlement.

The perfecting of the Andean Dispute Settlement System, he stated, is extremely important for the deepening of the integration process and will doubtlessly facilitate the negotiation of an association agreement between the European Union and the Andean Community, due for launching in twelve months’ time.

Court President Moisés Troconis called attention to the CAN General Secretariat’s initiative to implement the Presidential mandate to perfect and strengthen the dispute settlement system, particularly the system of sanctions, as part of its preventive efforts in that area. He offered all necessary support to accomplish that aim.

The purpose of the High-Level Ad Hoc Group meeting, which will last until tomorrow at the headquarters of the CAN General Secretariat in Lima is, in four sessions, to study the current state of observance of Community legislation and propose measures to strengthen and perfect the Andean dispute settlement system.