By Tito Drago
MADRID, May 18 2002 (IPS)

Heads of state from Latin America and the Caribbean and from the European Union (EU) agreed Friday to develop “a solid bi-regional strategic association” for international action, while civil society groups spoke out against the failure of the “neo-liberal globalisation process” to foment development in poor countries.

The governments and the non-governmental organisations each presented their own final declarations Friday at their respective summits in Madrid. The documents are a study in contrasts in tone and focus, and in the mostly opposing views of globalisation, though both represent stronger ties between the two regions.

The final declaration of the 48 countries represented at the official summit establishes a commitment for joint action within multilateral organisations aimed at cooperation on political, economic, scientific-technological and socio-cultural issues.

Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, who currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, said he was pleased with the results of the summit as he presented the conclusions of the second Europe, Latin America and Caribbean Summit.

“We are aware of the objectives that we have to achieve and of the difficulties, but a strong, ambitious spirit of cooperation is evident with regard to the problems we must resolve in the immediate future,” he said.

Brazil’s President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who hosted the first bi-regional summit in Rio de Janeiro two years ago, underscored the need for the EU and Latin America to work together in promoting multilateral cooperation initiatives.

Romano Prodi, head of the European Commission, the EU executive body, highlighted the broad consensus achieved between the two regions in rejecting the expansion of farm subsidies approved by the U.S. Congress last week, deepening that country’s trade protectionist policies.

But trade liberalisation was not only presented as a necessity in the summit’s final document. Farm subsidies came under fire behind closed doors as well, with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos saying that they “do not favour the objective of expanding free trade.”

Spain’s Javier Solana, High Representative for the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, called for greater effort in consolidating “real and effective multilateralism,” moving beyond mere rhetoric.

One of the key commitments established in the summit’s final document is for the two regions to work together to strengthen the multilateral system based on the principles of the United Nations Charter and of international law.

The document further states that the parties firmly reject all unilateral and extraterritorial measures that violate international law and the commonly accepted rules of free trade.

Colombian President Andrés Pastrana presented a gloomy overview of commerce among nations, citing that “80 percent of world trade occurs among developed countries and the remaining 20 percent among developed and developing and poor countries.”

Pastrana said that in 1980 some 120 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean, 41 percent of the population at the time, lived in poverty, while at the end of 1999, “20 years later, nearly 220 million people are poor, equivalent to 45 percent of the current population.”

He said, however, he is convinced that positive changes can occur, “as long as we agree on joint actions.”

Along those lines, the summit’s final document urges universal adhesion to the Rome Statute, signed at the 1998 UN conference that created the International Criminal Court to try cases of genocide, crimes of war and crimes against humanity. The Court’s authority enters into force Jul 1.

The commitments made at the Madrid meeting of heads of state also include reinforcing cooperative efforts to fight terrorism in all its forms, in accordance with the UN Charter and with full respect for international law, including human rights and humanitarian law.

The national leaders also agreed to work quickly and effectively to achieve greater liberalisation of international trade, to contribute to the success of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, Aug 26-Sep 4), and to seek ratification and enactment of the Kyoto Protocol aimed at curbing climate change.

At the conclusion of the official summit, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox announced that his country would host the next European, Latin American and Caribbean Summit, to be held in 2004.

While the two region’s leaders were signing their final declaration, thousands of people gathered for a demonstration in Madrid organised by the Trans-Atlantic Social Forum, also known as the People’s Summit, in protest against the official summit.

The Social Forum, meeting at the Complutense University of Madrid in parallel to the official summit, drew more than 70 civil society organisations from Latin America and Europe.

In the final declaration of this alternative summit, the groups accuse the EU of failing to come up with just alternatives for economic and trade relations with the countries of the developing South.

There is more injustice, more poverty and more inequality today in Latin America and its people are farther away from democracy and the full exercise of citizenship, says the text.

The application of neo-liberal economic policies and the foreign debt, contracted by “corrupt governments”, is a burden that jeopardises the future of several Latin American generations to come, and reduces the possibility of social justice and a fair distribution of wealth, says the declaration.

The Trans-Atlantic Social Forum’s final document, signed by the 70 non-governmental organisations participating in the event and by numerous individuals, also underscores the new forms of social organisation that citizens create in times of crisis.

The protest march through Madrid drew 3,000 to 5,000 people, according to the organisers.

Criticisms against the official summit also came from the principal opposition force in Spain’s political arena, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, PSOE secretary-general, stated that Aznar “has invested much more trust in economic forces, in companies and markets, than in politics” in defining relations with Latin America.

The Spanish government “has been described by some experts as ‘neo-imperial’. And they are not wrong,” commented Rodríguez Zapatero.

“Instead of governing globalisation, we have been governed by it… An intolerable globalisation process is one that occurs under the auspices of the neo-liberal ideology,” he said.

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