Lima, April 5, 2004. The Secretary General of the Andean Community, Allan Wagner, held a meeting today in Paris with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, Hubert Colin de Verdiere, with the purpose of deepening mutual cooperation and making him aware of the importance ascribed by the Andean Community to the entering into of an Association Agreement with the European Union.

At the said meeting, Ambassador Wagner highlighted the importance of taking a decision with regard to such agreement within the framewiork of the III Latin America and the Caribbean-European Union Summit, to be held this coming May, in Guadalajara, Mexico.

On his part, Ambassador Hubert Colin de Verdiere recognized the progress made by the Andean integration process and expressed the will of the French Government to contribute to create a deeper and stronger relationship between the Andean Community and the European Union.

The meeting was also attended, for the Andean side, by José Antonio García Belaunde and Richard Moss, Directors of the Andean Community Secretary General’s Office, and by M. Claude Blanchemaison, General Director of Cooperation, and Jean-Michel Gaussot, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office for America,. on behalf of the French Government.

Both parties shared a common perspective with regard to the globalization process, seen as a phenomenon that not only deals with economic aspects but also with significant political and cultural aspects.

The Secretary General of the Andean Community will attend tonight a banquet offered in his honor by the Peruvian Ambassador in France, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, and tomorrow he will continue his trip to Brussels, where he will hold a meeting with Christopher Patten, Foreign Affairs Commissioner of the European Commission, and Pascal Lamy, Trade Commissioner of the European Commission, as well as representatives of the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.