A different cooperation between the European Union, Latin America and
the Caribs is necessary

Joint statement of left members of parliament of Europe and Latin America and the Caribs, gathered in Bregenz, Austria, on April 24-25th, 2006

The members of parliament of the left, in Europe, Latin America and the Caribs, the undersigned, gathered in Bregenz for the third UE-ALC interparliamentary meeting, decided to make public the following declaration: 

We underline our compromise to work within the framework of a strategic biregional relation  between the EU and ALC based on the active cooperation between the peoples, their social organizations, their Parliaments, their governments and the other Institutions. 

We undertake in the process of regional integration of ALC by calling up to the dialogue with the aim of surmounting the difficulties which can appear. 

This statement occurs at a moment of big changes in Latin America and the Caribs, after the failure of the neo-liberal policies, therefore giving new hopes to put an end to social injustice and to conquer human rights and democracy, which allow the access of all to employment, food, water, health, education and housing. 

This resistance to neoliberalism is expressed in the European Union by the refusal of the project of Constitutional Treaty, in France and in the Netherlands, also with the occurrence of strong mobilizations in favour of the defence of social rights, against privatization of  services, the precarity of  employment and militarism

We share the idea that the social relations and the relations between States cannot be governed by the logic of the market with unsustainable economies which provoke unemployment, privatize public services, and  assault permanently the environment, by despoiling natural resources by means of multinational companies which act against the interests and the rights of the peoples. Deforestation of certain regions of Latin America and the European Union is an extreme example of these attacks.

We believe that business has to serve for putting the peoples in relation in conditions of justice and mutual profit, and consequently we reject the offensives of liberalisation of international trade mainly led by the EU and the USA in favour of big financial groups. We bet on a business based on complementarity, cooperation and solidarity, as for example ALBA, and on other agreements in the fields of development, education, culture or health.

We completely reject intervention and war and we bet on peaceful resolution of conflicts between States. This way we demand the immediate retreat of the invading troops of Iraq, and we oppose to any military intervention in Iran, under no excuse. We demand a negotiated and just solution for the conflict in the Middle East, for the existence of an independent and viable Palestinian state, according to the roadmap and to the resolutions of United Nations. 

We make a commitment to the demilitarization of international relations and security, by betting on the general and complete disarmament and the disappearance of military blocks. This way we demand the return inside their borders of all the American armed forces. We also pronounce in favour of the ban and of the ecological elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.

We condemn the flights chartered by CIA forwarders in some European countries, with prisoners or illegally confined, many of them subjected to torture. 

We denounce the recent American military operations in the Caribs, that fit perfectly within the framework of a permanent preparation for a possible aggression on the peoples. We denounce the double speech about terrorism, which protects criminals as in the case of Posada-Carriles, and pursues and illegally imprisons persons who fight against terrorism as it is the case of the 5 Cubans of Miami, and which pretends to criminalize  the fight for social rights and for human rights, by creating spaces of impunity. 

We consider that the fight against drug trafficking and that against organized crime cannot be confrontated by militarization, as for example Plan Colombia and Plan Puebla Panama. 

We demand the strict fulfilment of the principles of public international law of non-intervention, the respect for sovereign power, non-intervention and self-determination of the peoples as well as the respect for the international institutions of a multilateral point of view of the relations between the peoples of the world. This way we condemn the extraterritorial laws and very particularly the American blockade against the Republic of Cuba and the Helms-Burton law. 

We share the same vision based on the respect for fundamental rights and for the dignity of immigrants. This way we throw reject the creation of fortresses of the North in front of the South, which criminalize immigration, by pressing the bordering countries so that they collaborate in a police and repressive answer, instead of resolving the social causes which provoke the migratory movements. We condemn the construction of the Wall between Mexico and the United States which represents an aggression to human rights. 

We reaffirm that democracy implies the access to essential services for all the citizens. We reject the policy of liberalization and privatization of public services and we want to stir up the cooperation with Latin America and the Caribs, with the aim of the defence and of the intensification of these services.

Finally we commit ourselves to coordinate our parliamentary work to reach these objectives. 

Bregenz, on April 25th, 2006, 

Sign:

1. Deputy Juan José Domínguez Díaz 

Frente Amplio de Uruguay

2. Deputy Doreen Javier Ibarra,

Frente Amplio de Uruguay

3. Deputy Julio Palacios Sambrano,

Presidente del Parlamento Centroamericano, PRD, Panamá

4. Deputy Carolus Wimmer,

PC de Venezuela

5. Deputy Laureano Seijas,

MVR, Venezuela

6. Deputy Héctor Navarro,

MVR, Venezuela

7. Deputy Jhannett Madriz,

MVR, Venezuela

8. Deputy Aquiles Linares,

Vice-presidente del Parlamento Centroamericano, ANN-URNG, Guatemala

9. Deputy Pablo O. Marichal,

ANPP, Cuba

10. Deputy Tubal Paez Hernandez,

ANPP, Cuba

11. Deputy Douglas Enrique Velasco Nasera,

El Salvador

12. Deputy Orlando Fantazzini,

PSOL, Brasil

13. Deputy Fernando Perdomo,

Convergencia, México

14. Deputy Enrique Pintado, Uruguay

15. Senator Carlos Baraíbar Ponce de León,

Vice-presidente del Parlamento latinoamericano, Frente Amplio de Uruguay

16. Deputy Nelson Nicona,

Vice-Presidente del Parlamento Centroamericano, Honduras

17. Deputy Vilma Celina de Monterrosa,

Frente Democrático Revolucionario, FDR, El Salvador

18. Deputy Willy Meyer,

Izquierda Unida, España

en representación del grupo GUE/NGL del Parlamento europeo

19. Deputy Pedro Guerreiro,

Partido Comunista Portugués, Grupo GUE/NGL, Portugal

en representación del grupo GUE/NGL del Parlamento europeo

20. Senator Jaime Naranjo,

Partido socialista, Chile

21. Deputy Jorge Giorgetti,

Frente para la Victoria, PJ, Argentina

22. Deputy Dante Dovena,

Frente para la Victoria, PJ, Argentina