LATIN AMERICA-EU: Cooperation or Dependency?
Julio Godoy

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33205

VIENNA, May 11 (IPS) - The EU-Latin America/Caribbean summit, to take
place Friday in the Austrian capital, will be marked by the
contradictions that pervade relations between the two regions. While
the governments tout cooperation, civil society organisations
complain that it often merely serves to strengthen ties that benefit
corporate Europe.  

Social activists say EU-Latin America relations fail to take into
account the economic asymmetries and power imbalances between the two
regions, or the social reality and urgent need for development,
social justice, environmental protection and defence of human rights
in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

A typical official declaration came from European Commissioner for
Foreign Affairs and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-
Waldner last month, when she presented the new EU strategy aimed at
strengthening the "partnership" with Latin America and the Caribbean.
 

"We want to reinforce our mutual understanding and the existing
partnership to create new dialogues and opportunities for both
regions," she said.  

But non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Europe and Latin America
question such statements, and say official development aid and
cooperation is at times just another channel for draining resources
from Latin America to Europe.  

"Our 15 years of experience of free-market neoliberal policies have
shown that multinational capital has taken control of our natural
resources, our trees, our water, even our seeds," said Pedro Stedile
with Brazil's Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST).  

Stedile, who is taking part in the Permanent People's Tribunal held
parallel to the summit, mentioned in particular "European
transnational capital," such as the capital that is financing the
Norwegian-Brazilian Aracruz Celulosa paper pulp company.  

Both the MST and Vía Campesina, a global network of rural movements,
say Aracruz Celulosa is the company with the largest "green desert"
in Brazil, with more than 250,000 hectares planted with fast-growing
pulp trees - which deplete the soil and water sources - including
50,000 in the southern province of Río Grande do Sul alone.  

"Aracruz's factories produce 2.4 million tons of white paper pulp a
year, polluting the air and water, and damaging the health of local
residents, without generating significant employment and without
contributing to just economic development characterised by
solidarity," Stedile told IPS in Vienna.  

The Permanent People's Tribunal is holding its hearings in Vienna
Wednesday through Friday.  

The purpose of the Tribunal, according to the statement distributed
to the press, is "to denounce human rights violations and cases of
economic and environmental injustice committed by the 30 biggest
European corporations in the region of Latin America and the
Caribbean."  

The criticisms have targeted, for example, oil companies like BP
(formerly British Petroleum) and the Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF.
According to Christian Ferreyra, with the Bolivian Documentation and
Information Centre, both firms are taking part in the construction of
a pipeline in the Chaco basin in southern Bolivia.  

"We are opposed to the pipeline, which we consider a mechanism of
expropriation of Bolivia's natural resources," said Ferreyra at the
opening session of the Permanent People's Tribunal.  

The central role of European corporations in the EU strategy towards
Latin America has been demonstrated by the business forum taking
place simultaneously with the summit in Vienna, organised by the
Austrian Ministry of the Economy and Federal Economic Chamber, the
country's biggest business lobby group.  

Some 300 executives from the two regions are taking part in the
forum, under the theme "bridging the two worlds through business and
culture". The panels are discussing opportunities for global
companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, finance and trade,
global forces and their implications for Latin America, and other
issues.  

Speakers include EU Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner and the bloc's
Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen, as well as
Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno and
executives from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and leading
European corporations.  

In the view of Abel Esteban, an analyst with the Corporate Europe
Observatory (CEO), the business forum is basically a debate among
lobby groups, where European participants predominate.  

"Many of the representatives of Latin American companies actually
represent subsidiaries of European corporations," the activist told
IPS.  

"Besides discussing business opportunities in Latin America, the
business representatives have already called on the governments of
Latin America to accelerate progress towards free trade agreements
between the two regions," he added.  

Esteban pointed to a message from the European Commission - the EU
executive body - which stated that commissioners Ferrero-Waldner and
Verheugen would stress the benefits of free trade agreements and
strong commercial ties between Europe and Latin America.  

The Commission also expressed hope that the business forum would
contribute to progress in the negotiations on free trade deals,
thanks to the active participation of the sector in the talks.  

The opening ceremony of the fourth EU-LAC summit, which will bring
together the heads of state and government of the 25 EU member states
and the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, is taking
place on Thursday.  

The first three EU-LAC summits were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in
1999, in Madrid, Spain in 2002, and in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2004.  

During the summit, the leaders will continue negotiating free trade
agreements between the two regions, and will discuss cooperation in
the fight against drugs, organised crime and terrorism, and in areas
like migration, science and technology, and energy.  

Latin American leaders will also hold side meetings to discuss a
broad range of issues as well as bilateral and regional disputes and
conflicts.  

Despite the pomp and high-profile of the Vienna Summit, most
observers expect few to no concrete results, especially given the
imbalances between the two regions, in economic clout and other
areas, and the lack of unity among Latin American countries that is   
threatening to weaken their own regional blocs. (END/2006)