IV EU-Mercosur Summit Joint Communiqué

IV EU-Mer­co­sur Sum­mit Joint Com­mu­niqué Madrid, 17 May 2010
The Euro­pean Union-Mer­co­sur Sum­mit was held in Madrid on May 17, 2010, The Euro­pean Union was rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Her­man van Rompuy, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Coun­cil, and Mr. Jose Manuel Durão Bar­roso, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Pres­i­dent of the Span­ish Gov­ern­ment and Pres­i­dent in turn of the Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union, Mr. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zap­a­tero. Mer­co­sur was rep­re­sent­ed by Mrs Cristi­na Fer­nán­dez de Kirch­n­er, Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Argenti­na and Pres­i­dent pro tem­pore of Mer­co­sur; Mr. Luiz Ina­cio Lula da Sil­va, Pres­i­dent of the Fed­er­a­tive Repub­lic of Brazil; Mr. Dani­lo Astori, Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Ori­en­tal Repub­lic of Uruguay; Mr. Héc­tor Lacog­na­ta, Min­is­ter for Exter­nal Rela­tions of the Repub­lic of Paraguay and Mr. Fran­cis­co Arias Cár­de­nas, Vice-Min­is­ter for Latin Amer­i­ca and Caribbean of the Boli­var­i­an repub­lic of Venezuela, in the process of acceding. 

1. The Heads of State and Gov­ern­ment dis­cussed the sit­u­a­tion in both regions and informed their coun­ter­parts of the lat­est devel­op­ments in their respec­tive inte­gra­tion process­es and eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tions. Lead­ers empha­sized the close cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal val­ues which bond the two regions togeth­er. The lead­ers under­lined that, with a com­bined pop­u­la­tion of more than 700 mil­lion peo­ple, high com­bined GDP and biore­gion­al trade close to €100 bil­lion annu­al­ly, coop­er­a­tion between the two blocks gen­er­ates rec­i­p­ro­cal advan­tages and pos­i­tive spillovers at glob­al level.

2. At the occa­sion of the relaunch of the nego­ti­a­tions for an EU Mer­co­sur Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment, the Heads of State and Gov­ern­ment recalled their impor­tance in view of reach­ing an ambi­tious and bal­anced agree­ment between the two regions, which would deep­en rela­tions and offer great polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits to both sides. The lead­ers are aware that sub­stan­tial efforts will have to be made, and under­lined their full com­mit­ment to engage in these nego­ti­a­tions. Both sides stressed their com­mit­ment to strive for a con­clu­sion of the nego­ti­a­tions with­out delay. A first nego­ti­at­ing round will take place by ear­ly July at the latest.

3. The EU and Mer­co­sur lead­ers expressed their com­mit­ment to rapid­ly reach an ambi­tious, com­pre­hen­sive and bal­anced con­clu­sion of the Doha Devel­op­ment Round, and keep­ing in mind the cru­cial role of inter­na­tion­al trade as an engine of eco­nom­ic growth and devel­op­ment, reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to avoid pro­tec­tion­ism in all its forms.

4. The Heads of States and Gov­ern­ment stressed the impor­tance of the polit­i­cal dia­logue between the two regions. They agreed on the impor­tance of inten­si­fy­ing con­sul­ta­tions in inter­na­tion­al fora.

5. In line with the con­clu­sions of the EU-LAC Min­is­te­r­i­al Con­fer­ence on Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy and Inno­va­tion 2010 in Madrid, and in view of the already strong ties between the two regions in research and tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment, the par­ties agreed to explore con­crete ways to deep­en and inten­si­fy coop­er­a­tion in inno­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy for the mutu­al benefit.

6. Both sides high­light­ed the progress achieved with­in Mer­co­sur-EU coop­er­a­tion and the mid-term review of the Region­al Indica­tive Programme. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union