Lima, June 7, 2005

We welcome with great interest and pleasure the holding of this Workshop at the headquarters of the Andean Community General Secretariat, at the initiative of the European Commission. Once again the EU arrives at our headquarters to carry out with us an event of the greatest importance that will make it possible to contribute to and enrich the new conceptual strategy for the development of cooperation between the European Union and the Andean Community over the period 2007-2013.

I would like, in this connection, to express my special appreciation to Francesco Vincenti for his efforts throughout this process, together with a very important group of consultants and officers from both the European Union and the Andean Community, who have been working intensively and thanks to whose dedication and persistence we are holding this important Workshop today. Such are the cases of Marianne Van Steel and Ignacio Sobrino, whose task is to cooperate with us; but also of Saúl Pineda, Elsa Luengo and Maria Elena Esparza, on behalf of the Andean Community General Secretariat.

I would also like to draw attention to this new spirit of willingness on the part of the European Commission to address the conceptual lines of the new cooperation and programming period with the CAN. As Ambassador Mendel Goldstein has stressed, intensive efforts have been put into this by the team of consultants headed by our dear friend, Francesco Vincenti. Furthermore, extremely intense consultations have been conducted with the CAN General Secretariat and with each of the Andean countries, together with efforts within the very European Commission. All of these together have made it possible to come before you today with a highly interesting document filled with proposals to be analyzed in this Workshop.

The Workshop also offers an exceptional opportunity for distinguished intellectuals and leaders of the social groups in our countries to contribute –both with their presence and through videoconferences-- what we are certain will prove to be interesting elements that will help to progressively refine and enrich this new strategy. At the same time, our own strategic design of Andean integration, which has been incorporated and adopted by the consultants and Community authorities as the central elements for the strategic approach to be taken in the new cooperation effort between the CAN and the European Union, will be further enriched, as well.

This is reflected in many aspects, and particularly in one of them: that the new approach taken by the European Commission makes regional integration --Andean integration-- a key element of that cooperation, as the nucleus linking up the internal agenda –the agenda that addresses the gap opened by poverty, exclusion, and inequality and the solution of these problems that plague our countries-- with the agenda of modernity represented by the need to play a dynamic role in international trade in a globalized world like ours today.

In this sense, the approach presented in the document is highly important for reaching the targets agreed upon by the Andean Presidents at the Quito Summit in July of last year and later at the Special Cusco Summit in December and, more recently, through the decisions taken by consensus both by the CAN Council of Foreign Ministers and its Commission. These have to do with a new vision of development of the Andean countries, a more comprehensive development, a development combining international competitiveness and growing social inclusion, in such a way that our countries are made more cohesive, as the essential support for democratic governance.

It is for that reason that we consider the major subject areas proposed by the conceptual document for the cooperation effort so important. Ambassador Goldstein has already outlined them and all I would like to do is to make a few minor points. For example, the importance of continuing that cooperation in the areas of Andean trade integration themselves. We are making important progress in deepening Andean trade integration, at the same time as we move ahead with the joint evaluation being made with the European Commission. This is a necessary step before launching --next year, we hope-- negotiations for the signing of an Association Agreement that will include a free trade agreement.

It is very important for this cooperation --which we have already been receiving during the joint evaluation period and that will be added to over the next few days-- to be continued during the very process of negotiation and implementation of the Association and Free Trade Agreement, so that we can continue to count on very important European collaboration in the deepening of our integration movement and the perfecting of our institutions. In this way, that cooperation will become a key element of the association between the CAN and the European Union.

Furthermore, everything having to do with political cooperation on matters of democracy, the antidrug effort and democratic governance is extremely important and the document so considers it. As Ambassador Goldstein noted, we held three meetings with the European Union last week on these same premises: one on chemical precursors following a specialized high-level dialogue between the CAN and the European Union on the antidrug effort and afterwards the very same dialogue at the level of all Latin America with the European Union. This was a very important exercise. There was good participation, both European and Andean and Latin American. At these meetings we were able to reinforce the concept that the war against drugs should be linked to the antipoverty effort, for these issues are closely interrelated and should be addressed comprehensively and jointly.

We are pleased at the high level at which this dialogue was conducted. It was in keeping with the guidelines laid down at the Mixed Andean-European Commission held in January in Brussels and with the expectations expressed by the Foreign Ministers of both groups at the meeting last week in Luxemburg. We hope that by building on the results of these meetings, we will be able to hold a ministerial-level meeting between the two organizations --perhaps next year-- that will allow us to work out what would be a new medium-term action program on this important subject, above all, with this new vision that we are jointly developing in order to be able to fight the drug scourge more effectively.

We have already been working on democracy. This area is one in which results cannot be expected in the short term. In our work on democracy, we must, among other things and as the CAN Action Plan stipulates, address issues concerning the reinforcement of the political party system in the Andean region, for example. For that reason, we are currently engaged in setting up an Andean Working Committee of Political Parties --not “on” political parties, but “of” political parties-- so that we can help create a synergy between them and the reinforcement of their institutions and, of course, contribute to their modernization. It is also necessary to build up a culture of dialogue and democratic coordination in the region. What is happening in our countries is that the instability of democratic institutions combined with our peoples’ unsatisfied social demands are producing an erosion that cannot be contained by institutional means, thereby impairing democratic governance. In these circumstances, when there are no longer absolute or automatic majorities to be had and where it is necessary to strengthen democracy day-by-day, dialogue and democratic consensus-building are absolutely essential. For that reason, we are also working on an Andean vehicle for dialogue and democratic coordination that will help to reinforce this culture of concerted action, rather than confrontation, within our countries’ political circles.

I would also like to report that, at the request of the Government of Ecuador, the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, at its meeting in Luxemburg last week, authorized the General Secretariat to accept the request to act as an observer of the appointment of Ecuador’s new Supreme Court. This, as you are aware, is a development of basic and symbolic importance for initiating the reform of the country’s democratic system. We were invited, as well, to collaborate in the holding of a national dialogue among Ecuador’s civil society, which is intended to produce initiatives for reforming the democratic institutions. I would like to emphasize this because it is a new line of action that has arisen within the CAN as a result of the “Andean Commitment to Democracy” Protocol and of the “Andean Charter on Human Rights,” insofar as civil and political rights are concerned. It is something new in our sphere of action and, I believe, opens up a truly important course that will, of course, be available to the other Andean countries. The CAN has decided not supervise democracy, but to strengthen it and, of course, to act in partnership with the countries --I mean countries, not merely governments-- in helping to reinforce it.

I would also like to stress the importance attributed by the conceptual document to environmental issues. Given the megadiversity of the Andean countries --wealth we possess in the form of biogenetic resources, water, etc.-- , the environment is undoubtedly one of the key elements for the sustainable development of the Andean region. As a result, it should also be a central element in the cooperation provided through that new association with the European Union. As Ambassador Goldstein has already pointed out, but I would like to reaffirm, this will be without a doubt one of the important areas in the association between the CAN and the European Union.

Energy is another very important area. It is a well-known fact that the Andean region is an energy focal point in South America. We are moving ahead rapidly in the Andean sphere to create an Andean energy market like the electric power market that already exists. Today our electricity market among the countries is growing rapidly. We plan to do the same thing through the Andean Council of Ministers of Energy with regard to gas and also in developing the resources our countries possess in this area.

Just as we think that energy should constitute one of the central elements --perhaps the key element of South American integration-- , we also believe that it should or can also be a central element in the association between the Andean countries and the European Union. A recently published article by President Felipe Gonzáles warns us --with his characteristic eloquence-- of the possibility of a serious international energy crisis; in fact, he makes it sound almost inevitable. Hence the importance of, among other things, strengthening the association with the European Union in regard to this area, in such a way that the energy issue can be addressed not only from the viewpoint of our countries’ energy synergy, but, at the same time, of the use of this resource as an important lever for the development of the Andean countries.

Another important subject that we brought up in the Mixed Commission in January --actually, it was an initiative of the European Union-- was that of the Information Society. In fact, we have already started to work, with the collaboration of the United Nations, on the application of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to development, particularly social development. We believe an important potential for collaboration exists in this sphere, because when we normally talk about the new Information and Communication Technologies what we have in mind are the major contributions technology has made to production and trade. But the interesting thing is that these could also prove to be decisively important for our countries’ social development. This is also tied in with the issue of social cohesion, another basic pillar of our cooperation and our association. The Guadalajara Summit very aptly pointed out that our countries should be concerned over this issue as a basic pillar of democratic governance. In fact, two years ago, we incorporated the social agenda into the Andean integration agenda and the first concrete result was the adoption of the Integrated Social Development Plan (PIDS).

We are very pleased to learn about and to sense the interest of the European Union in the Andean Integrated Social Development Plan, which will undoubtedly become a very important area for cooperation in the association between the Andean countries and the European Union. The fact is, however, that social cohesion also has a great deal to do with a social development that also encompasses aspects connected with production and the generation of employment. As a result, it is very important to incorporate in this vision of development and social cohesion, issues connected with productive development, those that basically concern the coordination of social policies with sector policies, particularly territorially-based policies. These territorial interventions, on the Andean integration agenda for the first time, are another very important aspect of the cooperation between the European Union and the CAN. Europe has enormous and very rich experience in this area and we must learn from its successes and avoid repeating any errors that may have been made. All of this adapted to the Andean situation, of course.

This concept of social cohesion, approached as a comprehensive concept in which aspects of redistribution are also linked to aspects of the generation of employment and direct antipoverty efforts, is of basic importance to our association and our integration process. And this leads me once against to add a note of optimism, which is that, perhaps, we are about to fulfill a pending task of Andean integration, which is to carry integration more directly to the Andean people. If anything has failed, it is that that integration has not been able to effectively fulfill the requirement set out in the first article of the Cartagena Agreement, which is to help reduce the asymmetries between the countries and their interiors. The Andean integration process has not yet accomplished this objective. The original instruments failed, were left by the wayside, the process was commercialized and, of course, trade generates competitiveness, but it offers opportunities only to those already involved in one way or another in production activities. In this sense, the tasks of development itself, which are to incorporate the masses in the processes of production, development and playing a part in world trade, is undoubtedly one of the key elements of the new strategy and of this association between the CAN and the European Union.

This should be a matter of satisfaction to us because we believe we are on the way to fulfilling this objective --that of focusing on small and medium, urban and rural enterprise; of focusing on the regions that have been actively involved in Andean integration in order to place them in the vanguard in taking advantage of our Andean economic space and turn them into platforms for competitive internationalization; and work on the areas of influence of the integration and South American development hubs and, in this way, bring about our countries’ decentralized development. These are very important tasks for Andean development and also its democracy. In this way, integration again reencounters democracy and reinforces it.

We are already partners and trust that we will continue to be even closer partners in the near future. We wish to thank the European Union very much for giving us the opportunity to participate in this important Workshop, which we are certain will produce good results for the future of our cooperation through our association.

Thank-you very much.