Significant Notes About The V Summit Lationoamericana. European Union

Carlos Mora Vanegas

In many proposals, hopes arrived in Lima, Peru on May 14 of this year 2008 to the V EU-Latin American Summit, in favor of countering poverty, hunger, poverty, inequality, sustainable development and energy security.

It is committed to proposals and policies to counter it said.

So far we have heard:

. Peru's President Alan Garcia challenged his peers to give up their foreign ministers and advisers and intervene directly in the debate to concrete measures against climate change, poverty and exclusion, the three issues under which convened this V EU-LAC Summit.

"Do not leave it to counsel, not even the ministers, the fundamental work to specific goals, policies of the future. Let us work for them to come true," he said.

"It is imperative that in our meetings prime what unites us and binds us, that in which we agree, and ignore for the moment, that puts us at odds against the historic responsibility to really drive continental "

• Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, stated: Latin America not only is poorer than the EU, but has a higher index of inequality, which shows that policies have not worked for social cohesion and equal opportunities. He admitted that the facts show that economic growth itself does not solve the problem of poverty, but it is essential to advance the solution

"The market is a prerequisite for the development and productivity growth, but not enough. Rectifying the position is required the State to correct gross inequalities in Latin America, "he added.

They are necessary, public policy specifically aimed at overcoming poverty, and the main factor is the generation of employment and the fight against gender inequality because, in Latin America 'poverty has a female face. "

• Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said in her defense of policies to promote education, a valuable tool for social inclusion, particularly women, indigenous people, migrants and marginalized and vulnerable.

After six years of economic growth in Latin America, 'it's time to move forward, "said Bachelet, who recalled that growth without equity is not conducive to development and urged to take advantage of the economic boom to invest in education, strengthening social protection systems and distribute the benefits of growth.

'Do not make the same mistakes as in the 90's, where we grew up, but do not move in equity, "he said.

'We want to grow to include and include to grow, "said Bachelet, convinced that the strategic and regional partnership working in the LAC and the EU must become a' development partnership '.

'We must act now' specific proposals, he said, and referred to the UN support in its strategy to combat the food crisis, to support the World Food Program.

• Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez called for 'looking policies that led to the impoverishment of the continent, to inquire into the causes and reverse the situation "and advocated an integration process between LAC and the EU' which is perceived by all Advantageously society '.

Investment in innovation, education, technology is 'key', he said, the challenge facing Latin American leaders

• Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, president of Spain. addressed the issue of free trade agreements in his speech. In the same stressed that not spare efforts to break down the barriers between countries. "We need to look as top priority the conclusion in the next two years, the Association Agreements and Central America, the Andean Community of Nations and Mercosur." He also asserted: "I believe this task can not keep waiting. We can not get to our next appointment, in 2010, without having achieved ". That year Spain will hold the presidency of the summit, so to get the member countries with the homework done, the government could be considered satisfied.

• The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, said:

"We need to take over policy and not the market," he said. "Politics is like the cavalry has to go forward, and not the market, which is something else that generates hunger, misery and exclusion."

Next, Chavez raised his recipe: "The formula for fighting poverty is socialism," he said. "No hope that everyone follows the socialist, but supreme efforts should be made to avoid the evils that capitalism causes."

• The Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa questioned that Colombia and Peru, contrary to the disposition of negotiating as a bloc with the EU, have tried to do outside the CAN.

"What would be viable to be negotiated as the Andean Community, but inside there are two members already negotiated an FTA with the United States (Peru and Colombia) and assumed certain conditions that Ecuador and Bolivia will not consent or with America or with Europe" said Correa. "If this is a major obstacle, look for alternatives."

The V Summit of Latin America-Caribbean and European Union ended with a statement urging both the regional bloc and the EU to speed up negotiations that will close as soon as possible free trade agreements. The countries that hinder this process are, in the case of the Andean Community, Venezuela and Bolivia, and in the Mercosur, mainly Argentina. The arguments usually put on the table to explain their reluctance to these treaties aim to excessive European agricultural and industrial protectionism

The summit exposed the deep divisions of CAN in negotiations with the EU and the unconcealed tensions between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela to the Colombian military incursion of March 1 in Ecuador