PROPOSAL FOR A RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL
4.7.2006
by Willy MEYER PLEITE
on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
on the guidelines for the negotiation of an Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America
B6‑0417/2006
European Parliament recommendation to the Council on the guidelines for the negotiation of an Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America
The European Parliament,
– having regard to paragraph 31 of the Vienna Declaration, which contains the decision taken by the European Union and Central America at the Fourth EU-LAC Summit to open negotiations on an Association Agreement, including the establishment of a free-trade area,
– having regard to Title V of the Treaty on European Union.
– having regard to Rule 114(1), in conjunction with Rule 85, of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the establishment of democracy and constitutional government, the full enjoyment of human rights by all individuals (including the rights and the fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples), the protection of those who uphold human rights and the elimination of impunity must constitute basic conditions for the development of the Association between the parties, as was decided in Vienna;
B. whereas the guidelines for the negotiation of the future Agreement must accord with the parties' wish (as expressed in paragraph 31 of the Vienna Declaration) to conclude a comprehensive Association Agreement - in other words, one which restates the firm belief that Central America is much more than free trade and that the European Union is proposing not to negotiate a purely commercial agreement similar to the CAFTA but, rather, to establish a political and economic partnership with the region and its constituent countries which takes into account the asymmetry and the inequalities between the two regions and amongst the various Central American countries, and which therefore includes key provisions on cooperation and development;
C. whereas the guidelines for the negotiation of the future Agreement must ignore neither the serious social, economic and political deficit which exists in most Central American countries, nor the differences in development between the two regions, nor the nature of economic relations in Central America: regional trade concentrated on a small number of countries, a high level of dependence on exports of traditional products and low levels of EU FDI in the region, and so on;
1. Addresses the following recommendations to the Council:
- (a)that the negotiating mandate should expressly include the legal base upon which the new Association Agreement is to be negotiated; that base should be Article 310 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, in conjunction with the first sentence of the first paragraph of Article 300(2) and the second paragraph of Article 300(3);
- (b)that the negotiating guidelines should contain provision for the mechanisms required to ensure that the terms of the future Agreement are in perfect accordance with the EU Treaty mandate, pursuant to which the promotion of international cooperation, the development and consolidation of democracy and constitutional government and the upholding of human rights are basic CFSP objectives;
- (c)that the negotiating guidelines should include guidance concerning the best way of cooperating closely and jointly in order to promote effective multilateralism and increase the UN's ability to maintain and consolidate peace, and of jointly addressing the threats to peace and security (including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism) within a multilateral framework, as was decided in Vienna;
- (d)that the negotiating guidelines should provide for progressive access to European markets for Central American products under competitive terms and conditions, so as to prevent the Agreement from aggravating existing asymmetries; that the guidelines should therefore provide for special, variable and flexible treatment as regards the timetable to be established, on the basis of the commitments and the improvements in the competitiveness achieved by the Central American countries as a result of EU support measures such as technology transfer, the inclusion of requirements for home-country content in rules on origin, and the drawing up of cooperation and technical-assistance programmes;
- (e)that in order to ensure that the inclusion in the Association Agreement of the democracy clause or other social or environmental clauses is more than just an expression of good intentions, the new negotiating directives should refer specifically to the practical means which will enable such clauses to be invoked and should provide in particular for an annual report to be submitted to the European Parliament on the Commission's monitoring activities in this area;
- (f)that specific references should be included to the structured involvement of civil society in the new political dialogue through the holding of periodic conferences with representatives of civil society in both the EU and Central America, the granting to those representatives of observer status at interministerial meetings and the taking of action to facilitate the representatives' active involvement in appropriate sectoral forums, committees and subcommittees at all stages in the discussion, negotiation and monitoring of the process;
- (g)that the Commission should provide Parliament with exhaustive (and if necessary confidential) information concerning its recommendations as regards the negotiating mandate;
2. Instructs its President to forward this recommendation to the Council and, for information, to the Commission, and also to the governments of the EU Member States.