Motion for a resolution - B6-0173/2008Motion for a resolution
B6-0173/2008

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

16.4.2008

following statements by the Council and Commission
pursuant to Rule 103(2) of the Rules of Procedure
by Willy Meyer Pleite, Helmuth Markov, Giusto Catania, Jens Holm, Ilda Figueiredo, Pedro Guerreiro
on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
on the Fifth EU-LAC Summit in Lima

See also joint motion for a resolution RC-B6-0147/2008

Procedure : 2008/2536(RSP)
Document stages in plenary
Document selected :  
B6-0173/2008

B6‑0173/2008

European Parliament resolution on the Fifth EU-LAC Summit in Lima

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the declarations of the four Summits of Heads of State and Government of Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union held to date, respectively in Rio de Janeiro (28 and 29 June 1999), Madrid (17 and 18 May 2002), Guadalajara (28 and 29 May 2004) and Vienna (12 and 13 May 2006),

–  having regard to the joint communication of the 13th Ministerial Meeting of the Rio Group and the European Union, held in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) on 20 April 2007,

–  having regard to the joint communication of the Ministerial Meeting of the San José Dialogue between the EU troika and the ministers of the countries of Central America, held in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) on 19 April 2007,

–  having regard to the Final Act of the 17th EU-Latin America Interparliamentary Conference, held in Lima from 14 to 16 June 2005,

–  having regard to its resolutions of 15 November 2001 on a Global Partnership and a Common Strategy for Relations between the European Union and Latin America and of 27 April 2006 on a stronger partnership between the European Union and Latin America,

–  having regard to the resolutions of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly of 20 December 2007,

–  having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the forthcoming Summit of Heads of State and Government of Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union in Lima provides an opportunity for proposing concrete solutions for both regions and developing their actions,

B.  whereas the EU and Latin America will, on the occasion of the Fifth EU-LAC Summit to be held in Lima on 16 and 17 May 2008, pay particular attention to cooperation in fields including sustainable development, energy, climate change and other environmental issues,

C.  whereas the prospection and exploitation of resources must be carried out respecting national independence and in such a way as to avoid the depredation and impoverishment of energy-rich nations,

D.  having regard to the high and increasing incidence of poverty in Latin America under the impact of neo-liberal economic policies, and to the fact that 70% of the 1.3 m people living in extreme poverty are women; whereas poverty is the main cause of migration;

E.  concerned at the world financial crisis, the continued debt problem affecting many Latin American countries, and the problems in obtaining food products arising from higher food prices,

F.  whereas the recent financial events in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis in the US are merely a symptom of a far graver and deeper crisis affecting the entire world financial system, with effects on the world's economies, including those the EU and LAC economies, whose precise nature cannot yet be foreseen,

G.  noting with great interest the launch of the Banco del Sur and UNASUR, as well as other regional integration measures aimed at tackling social and economic problems through emancipation from the international financial institutions,

H.  having regard to the need for regional integration processes to respect national sovereignty and equality between nations, on the basis of a far-reaching social policy while promoting an approach based on each country's development needs, especially for the least developed countries, and favouring genuine convergence between the EU Member States and the LAC countries; whereas the agreements must give priority to peace, the democratisation of society, the furthering of communities' social rights, tackling the economic and financial crises, and protecting the environment and cultural diversity,

I.  whereas the Beijing Action Platform validated gender mainstreaming as an effective strategy for gender equality, and whereas governments and other actors have committed themselves to its guidelines,

J.  whereas women's rights in the areas of health, reproduction and sexuality constitute a precondition for achieving gender equality,

K.  noting that the recent 'Andean crisis' points up the significant risk of the armed conflict in Colombia spreading to the wider region; deeply concerned at the militarisation and extension of this conflict, and, in that connection, at the large numbers of assassinations, disappearances - especially of trade unionists and human rights activists - and massacres of civilians by paramilitary groups and members of the security forces, as well as at the attacks and kidnappings perpetrated by the guerrillas,

L.  having regard to the need for a biregional dialogue for mutual support and cooperation on the above issues,

1.  Hopes that the forthcoming Summit of EU-LAC leaders in Lima in mid-May 2008 will permit substantial advances in such crucial areas as the peace processes, deepening democracy on both sides, human rights, migration, the social debt, the current world financial crisis, the environment and climate change, biodiversity, the preservation of cultural diversity, and minority rights;

2.  Believes that the international financial crisis, which has its epicentre in the US financial system and was triggered off by property speculation, is an expression of the growing crisis of a financial speculation that has little to with the real economy, as well as of the devaluation of workers' wages and the purchasing power of the poorest, together with forced recourse to bank loans both for buying property and for consumption; finds it unacceptable that the workers and the least-favoured strata should have to pay the costs of the present financial crisis, once again letting off the hook those who are in reality responsible for, and benefit from, speculative policies and the financing of the economy, in other words big business and finance;

3.  Repudiates the criminalisation of social protest and the attacks on workers' rights, not only in Latin America but also now in Europe, as well as the restrictions in some cases affecting freedom of expression and political expression; calls on the Peruvian government to guarantee that the EA3 alternative summit will be able to take place during the official leaders' summit in Lima, as has been the case at previous summits;

4.  Condemns trafficking in people with all possible severity and calls for suitable action to end it; at the same time, repudiates any notion of criminalising migrants and advocates the free movement of persons between the two regions; calls for closer biregional cooperation to deal with migration-related issues on a basis of peace and social justice, and not by creating 'fortresses', building walls or punitive measures against migrants;

5.  Welcomes the outcome of the summit of Rio Group leaders in Santo Domingo, at which they proposed means of dealing with the 'Andean crisis', rejected violating third countries' sovereignty by military invasions, repudiated the establishment of terrorist lists as practised by the US, Canada and the EU, and pressed for negotiated solutions to the internal conflicts in the region;

6.  Believes that the negotiations for association agreements should be based on respect for national sovereignty and equality between nations, constituting an opportunity for the genuine mutual approximation of the two regions on a footing of equality, in the negotiation of the chapters concerning political dialogue, cooperation and trade, in equitable and mutually beneficial conditions based on complementarity and solidarity, thus marking a shift away from the free-trade agreement model promoted by the US in a case like CAFTA;

7.  Calls on the Commission to look closely at the requests by certain countries for the establishment, not of free trade areas as proposed by the EU, but of non-reciprocal trade agreements; rejects the notion of free trade agreements and calls on the Commission to seek alternatives, such as confining matters to certain aspects of trade facilitation and improving the GSP+ system, which appears to be the one best adapted to the economic and social circumstances of numerous developing countries;

8.  Calls for further development of the biregional strategic partnership, with the twofold objective of promoting popular wellbeing and advancing with regional integration, taking account of the asymmetries existing both between countries and between the two regions;

9.  Calls on the leaders to put forward solutions to the severe food crisis now affecting communities and national food sovereignty, and to take appropriate decisions, in the light of the knowledge now available concerning the key role of biofuels in relation to the feeding of peoples and to climate change;

10.  Believes that public services are vital in the fight against inequality, poverty and epidemics; stresses the crucial need for cooperation between the two regions in order to preserve and develop public services as key components of democracy;

11.  Calls for public policies to promote infrastructures, equipment and public services ensuring general access for women to sex education and reproductive education, including control over their fertility, and to support motherhood and fatherhood, thus enabling women to plan their families and the other aspects of their lives and furthering all the conditions required for greater participation on a basis of equality;

12.  Welcomes and supports the struggles of communities, including indigenous communities, for control over their natural resources, and, in particular, the fight for access to water and energy; believes that basic human rights are involved here;

13.  Believes that the EU leaders should express their firm support for the actions undertaken by the Latin American and Caribbean governments to monitor respect for human rights and social and environmental rights on the part of the European and other multinationals operating on their territory;

14.  Believes that agriculture remains vital for the majority of the poorer strata, including the indigenous communities, and insists on the importance of access to land through agrarian reform programmes; considers that the bilateral and multilateral negotiations involving the two regions should give priority to food safety and sovereignty and to preserving family and cooperative farming;

15.  Welcomes the recent Latin American regional integration efforts such as the Banco del Sur, Petrosur and PetroCaribe; applauds the progress made on the ALBA proposal, which embraces all aspects of the lives of the peoples of Latin America via a model of integrated development grounded in the principles of solidarity, cooperation, complementarity and the sovereignty of peoples, and which views trade as an instrument and not an end, placing human beings at the centre of things;

16.  Believes it important that the biregional fund proposed by the European Parliament should help bridge the existing gulfs in society, which are a source of permanent damage;

17.  Condemns the secessionist moves in Bolivia among certain oligarchical sectors wishing to monopolise natural resources that belong to all Bolivians; recalls that the referendums organised by those groups have been declared illegal both by the Bolivian electoral authorities and by the UN Special Rapporteur, Rodolfo Stavenhagen;

18.  Is deeply concerned at the tendency to tie world security to the security of the US, a country which still has military bases worldwide, with military spending having risen in 2007 to the highest level since the end of World War II; is disturbed by this US-driven military escalation, which the EU has gone along with, as in the case of the ant-missile shield to be built in the Czech Republic and Poland; demands the closure of the foreign military bases in the two regions;

 19.  Reaffirms its commitment to the positions and principles of the UN Charter; reiterates its decision to support all efforts to defend the equality and sovereignty of all countries, respect their territorial integrity and political independence, abstain in international relations from any threats or use of force inconsistent with UN positions and principles, and maintain peaceful conflict resolution in line with the principles of justice and international law;

20.  Reiterates its support for a negotiated political solution to the conflict in Colombia; supports the endeavours of countries such as France and Venezuela to help in the exchange of FARC prisoners and hostages; condemns the influence exercised on the state authorities by organised crime, as also the attack by the Colombian army on the FARC in Ecuadorean territory, which is a violation of Ecuador's sovereignty and of international law and is creating an unacceptable climate of crisis in the region;

21.  Welcomes the creation in January 2008 of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (ICAIG), since this offers a valuable opportunity for Guatemala, with the support of the international community, to resume progress on the path to establishing democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights; sees the ICIAG as an example to be followed by all countries affected by impunity; regrets the absence, five months after their launch, of any results of the investigations owing to obstruction from certain sections of the legal apparatus; stresses that the EU must uphold the ICAIG as an example of biregional institutional cooperation;

22.  Is concerned over the current state of the electoral systems in some Latin American countries, such as El Salvador, which do not guarantee elections based on residence, proper electoral rolls and reliable voting cards; calls on the EU to examine the possibility of approval of the new Salvadorean electoral law and to monitor the electoral process in that country, in order to help ensure that the 2009 elections will take place in an atmosphere of transparency and fairness;

23.  Condemns the resolution of El Salvador's Supreme Court of 16 October 2007 regarding non-applicability of ILO Convention 87 on trade union freedom; calls on the Commission to make application of that convention a basic condition for further progress on the EU-Central America association agreement;

24.  Rejects firmly all unilateral coercive measures that have extraterritorial effects and are contrary to international law and the generally accepted rules of free trade; believes that such practices are a serious threat to multilateralism; recalls UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/62/3 and its repudiation of the extraterritorial provisions of the Helms-Burton Act;

25.  Calls for the release of the five Cubans who have been imprisoned in the US for the last ten years following their arbitrary arrest, as denounced by the UN General Assembly's Committee on Human Rights; denounces their cruel and isolating conditions of imprisonment, with no rights to family visits, in clear breach of human rights and of US law;

26.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Parliaments of the EU Member States and of all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Presidency of the Fifth EU-LAC Summit, the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, the Latin American Parliament, the Central American Parliament and the Mercosur Parliament.