Vienna Consensus for Latin America and Caribbean.
In May the EU - Latin America/Caribbean summit will take place in Vienna involving 58 countries. In the face of increased social inequalities and levels continuing poverty the summit will focus on addressing the failures of current economic and co-operation strategies. These policies, established in the 1990s within the framework of the "Washington Consensus", were based on liberalisation of national economies.

According to Latin American Economic System (SELA), an organization that..., new strategies are needed that promote growth with equity, promote regional integration in trade and social cohesion. For Roberto Guernieri, Permanent Secretary of SELA, a major factor is that "Latin America and the Caribbean do not have independent supranational bodies". There is little economic or institutional integration within the region so it is necessary for every co-operation agreement to be negotiated with numerous and very different states and local organisations. Wolf Grabendorff, of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Germany, explained that it was the reason why most of the time the EU worked only with some "individual countries like Mexico or Chile". Othewise it means that the EU has to negotiate with 33 different entities for the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is just too complicated.

However, even where there has been sub regional approaches to co-operation the results have been dissappointing. Mercosur, ..., has been negotiating with the EU for a decade without little success, largely seen as a result of European protectionist farm policies. Some countries have also been given a hard time negotiating with the EU because they have refused an unconditional free trade agreement. Roberto Guarnieri concluded that "On one hand, there are no other regions in the world that share so many historical, cultural and religious roots, as well as values, as Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union. But on the other hand, economic trends and statistics reveal disappointing bilateral relations."

The European Commission is looking towards the adoption of a "Vienna Consensus". In presenting the proposal Commission representative Christian Ghylers said that it would be "a clear roadmap on the steps and actions to be taken, including a precise timetable and specific targets, to strengthen the relationship between the two regions." The Consensus should be supported by two pillars, a commercial dialogue in which Latin America and the Caribbean would commit themselves to a gradual opening up of their markets as a condition to access the European Market, and a dialogue on social cohesion with a sharing of the best practices for the fight against social exclusion and poverty. The EU puts emphasis on this second pillar as the main contrast with the "Washington Consensus", and the main strengths of the new Consensus.

Towards a development instrument for the EU.

Simon Stocker, Director of Eurostep, congratulated "the European Parliament for its unambiguous position on establishing a separate and clearly defined Development Co-operation Instrument for the EU”. The Development Committee adopted its report on establishing a Development Co-operation Instrument which will now be voted on by the whole Parliament in Plenary. The report splits the Commission's proposed Development Co-operation and Economic Co-operation Instrument into two separate instruments with the Development Co-operation Instrument being dedicated to the EC's co-operation with developing countries based soley on the Treaty Article for development (179 TEC).

Eurostep believes that it is vital for the EU co-operation with developing countries be clearly driven by the Union's development policy objectives and this can only be assured with a separate instrument for development. "The votes in all relevant Committees of the Parliament today demonstrate the determination of the European Parliament to do this and give a clear signal to the Commission and the Member States on what Parliament expects” said Rein Antonissen from the Belgian NGO 11.11.11.

The Development Committee also voted the inclusion of a requirement for a set of separate thematic and geographical regulations to establish the priorities for EC development co-operation. These regulations would be adopted under the co-decision procedure. "The European Parliament must retain its role in setting the EU’s development priorities, and this is best done through separate regulations" said Paddy Maguinness, deputy CEO of the Irish organization CONCERN.

The report of the Development Committee will now be presented to the Plenary for adoption as the Parliament’s first reading under the co-decision procedure.

World Water Day on 22 March was marked with protests against plans for water privatization. In Brussels a human chain of 1000 people was formed between the offices of AQUAFED (international private water company federation) and the European Commission headquarters, organised by several Public Service Unions (FGTB, EPSU), NGOs (11.11.11, Oxfam Solidarity) and associations (ATTAC Flanders) .

Jan Willem Goudriaan, Deputy General Secretary of EPSU, explained that "This action was to demonstrate that private water companies continue to pressure EU decision makers to make the case for water privatization".  AQUAFED's goal is to promote private sector participation in water and wastewater management and according to Willem Goudriaan this model simply does not work.

Marc Maes, from 11.11.11,  declared "that even if we are happy to see that the European Commission has not maintained its propositions supporting water privatization, we are still afraid that the Commission will press for them later during negotiations at the WTO." He concluded saying "they wanted the Commission to clearly renounce water privatization at the WTO negotiations and urgently increase development spending on access to water as the actual trend is to lower them, making the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by 50% the number of people without access to drinking water, impossible to reach."

For more information see: http://www.waterjustice.org/?mi=1&res_id=129

Peasant organizations and NGOs have demanded that decision makers reject agreements of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF). In a statement of 22 March West African NGOs called on governments to reconsider the common external tariff that was adopted with the goal of preserving national food security. The same NGOs urged the countries involved to refuse to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the European Union as long as key questions related to establishing a fair trading system were not resolved. They particularly cited continued farm subsidies within the EU and industrial protectionism. They also asked West African MPs to demand a mechnism that would allow them to control the content of the EPA negotiations

For more information: http://fairtrade.socioeco.org