[Deuda-2005] EU-Latin America summit under fire

[Ecologistas en Acción]

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200605/cced6b5b-d06f-4a8a-a7d5-
6cd25efecbe2.htm 

Published: Mon, 8 May 2006 12:42:09 GMT+02
Author: Daisy Ayliffe

EU-Latin America summit under fire

NGOs will convene at the EU-Latin America Caribbean (LAC) summit to 
protest against Brussels’ promotion of free trade and privitisation. 


More than 1,000 campaigners are expected to gather for an 
“alternative summit” that calls on the EU to start engaging more with 
civil society in Latin America. 

“In Vienna we will be calling on the EU to stop pushing for the 
privitisation of public services such as health, education and 
water,” Gérard Karlshausen of CNCD told reporters on Monday. 

“There is a lack of contact with civil society at the moment. 
Although we see a lot of rhetoric on this issue in the European 
parliament, there is little space for the people of Latin America to 
give their opinions.” 

On Thursday, commission president José Manuel Barroso, trade 
commissioner Peter Mandelson and external relations commissioner 
Benita Ferrero-Waldner will attend the EU-LAC summit in Vienna. 

Topics are likely to include social cohesion, regional integration 
and multilateralism. 

Trade will also feature high on the agenda, although efforts to sign 
a bilateral trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur bloc of 
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay has been stalled for some 
years now. 

But campaigners accuse the EU of using free trade agreements to 
pursue a right wing agenda. 

“Latin Americans have rejected neo-liberalism on the streets and, in 
several cases, in the ballot boxes too,” Gonzalo Berron of 
Hemispheric Social Alliance declared. 

“Our meeting in Vienna will send a clear message that we do not want 
neo-liberalism by the back door, in the shape of ‘strategic 
partnerships’ and interregional free trade strategies.” 

Campaigners are also worried that by focusing on millennium 
development goals, the EU is taking its eye off the ball. 

“The millennium development goals focus on the consequences of 
poverty but they do not look at its causes. We do not think the EU is 
doing enough to address this – in particular, it is not doing enough 
to promote human rights in the region,” Karlshausen added. 

The alternative LAC summit begins on Thursday and is set to include 
speeches by Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez and Bolivian president 
Evo Morales.


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