Lima, September 29, 2003. The Secretary General of the Andean Community, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, announced today that there is a political will to conclude by October 15, in Quito, the negotiations for the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between the Andean Community and the European Union.

"This agreement will be the starting point so that in the coming year, after the corresponding consultations with each group, a new relationship process may be initiated that will culminate in the signing of an Agreement of Association including a free trade zone between the Andean Community and the European Union", he explained.

He reported that the pertinent commitment was assumed during the recent meeting held between the Andean Community and the European Troika within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly, when the members acknowledged the difficulties affecting the negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Then he stressed that said acknowledgement enabled both blocks to define that “A qualitative step in the relationship between CAN and the EU was necessary based on the conclusions to be reached in Quito", but that it was also mandatory, on the Andean side, to continue deepening into sub-regional integration.

Fernández de Soto pronounced these words during the inauguration of the Seminar "Regional and Physical Integration of the Andean Community and South America: Elements for consideration at the EU/ALC Summit", which was graced with the presence of Mendel Goldstein, Head of the European Commission Delegation in Peru; Gonzalo Arenas, Chairman of the Latin American Center for European Relations (Celare); and Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros, Vice-Minister of the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.