Lima, July 7, 2006.- In a series of videoconferences yesterday and today, the Andean Vice-Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Trade completed the preparatory work for next week’s meetings in Brussels with European Commission officials to put the finishing touches to the report on the joint assessment of the Andean integration process and to discuss the bases for the negotiation of the future Association Agreement between the two blocs. 

With this same aim in mind, Andean Community Secretary General, Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón, yesterday completed a one-day working visit to Brussels, where he met with the Deputy Directors General of Foreign Affairs and of Trade, together with the Director for Latin America of the EuropeAid Co-operation Office.  He was accompanied at these meetings by representatives of the four Andean countries accredited to Brussels. 

The officials informed the Andean Community Secretary General of their satisfaction over the progress made by the four Andean countries as of the political understandings reached at the biregional European Union – Latin America and the Caribbean Summit on May 12 in Vienna and the June 13 Andean Summit in Quito, which have returned the CAN to an even keel following Venezuela’s withdrawal and improved the Community’s prospects for working out a strategic association with Europe.   

Community officials reaffirmed the political will of the European Union to achieve an Association Agreement involving the four Andean countries and that region’s willingness to consider offering differentiated treatment of trade issues to accommodate given sensitivities and particularities of certain Andean countries, thereby safeguarding the Agreement’s “bloc-to-bloc” nature.   

The European officials also confirmed the intention of the European Union to strengthen and expand its cooperation with the CAN and agreed, at Ambassador Wagner’s request, to give the four Andean countries assistance, through the CAN General Secretariat, so that they can participate on an equal technical footing in the forthcoming negotiation of the Association Agreement and to support the Andean private sector and civil society, as the European Economic and Social Council does.   

In concluding, the European directors informed Ambassador Wagner of their willingness to establish a medium-term cooperation program to enable the Andean countries --particularly Bolivia-- to make the most of the trade and investment opportunities stemming from the Association, thereby ensuring that the Association Agreement will become an important instrument for the development, social cohesion and democratic governance of the Andean countries and for reducing asymmetries within the CAN.