EU Heads to Mexico for Multilateral Talks

With the summit agenda spanning multilateralism, social cohesion, trade relations and reforms of the United Nations, the 58 delegates attending the two days of talks in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, have plenty of ground to cover.

The EU is concerned about the levels of poverty across Latin America, and bloc members are expected to push hard for the urgent implementation of poverty eradication programs. A summit paper claims that between just 9 and 15 percent of Latin America's total income goes to the poorest 40 percent of households.

It is a trend that Europe would like to see reversed. Since 1996, the EU has given Latin American countries more than €500 million (US $600 million) a year in development aid, and member nations feel that Latin American economies could be doing better. The Union currently does more business with Vietnam than with Venezuela, more with Kazakhstan than Colombia, and more with Bangladesh than Peru.

Talking Trade

Delegates will also discuss trade relations between the two corners of the globe. Mexico has enjoyed a free trade agreement with the EU for the past four years, during which time, trade has increased, although there has been substantially more trade coming out of Europe than out of Mexico.

The president of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, will make it clear to the Europeans that a similar trade agreement between the EU and the whole of Latin America would be an opportunity for the southern states to reduce their dependence on the United States.

Ahead of the summit, European and Latin American officials are continuing negotiations for a free trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur, which groups Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. They aim to have a deal by October of this year, which if achieved would be the first of its kind between the European Union and a group of countries, and it could carry enough clout to force Washington to include agricultural issues in talks for a 34-nation free trade area of the Americas.

Also up for debate in Guadalajara is the issue of multilateralism. Delegates will discuss ways of better solving conflicts within the framework of the United Nations. "We have to put a stop to this unilateralism," said Mexican president Vincente Fox, without going so far as to name the US, which invaded Iraq last year without a UN mandate.

Confident Chancellor

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is traveling to Mexico ahead of the summit for a meeting with the host, President Vicente Fox. He will also be among the European delegates in Mexico on Friday, where he will hold planned talks with Brazilian president "Lula" da Silva and with the Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, the Chilean Premiere Ricardo Lago and Peru's head of state, Alejandro Toledo.

Talks on reforming the United Nations and the Security Council will be of particular interest to Schröder, who said earlier in the week that he believed Germany would be a promising candidate for a permanent seat on an enlarged U.N. Security Council. "I know few who would say Germany shouldn't be part of it," he said. He has also expressed interest in seeing Brazil included in a possible new make-up of the Council.

There is much less confidence surrounding the Communist Cuban President Fidel Castro. He is currently locked in a diplomatic dispute with Mexico which recalled its ambassador from Havana and sent the Cuban envoy home after accusing Havana of meddling in Mexican affairs. Whether Castro turns up for the summit or not, remains to be seen.