EU and Latin American Foreign Ministers to Meet
Press release 62/2007
19 April, 2007
The Foreign Ministers of EU and Latin American countries will gather at meetings to be held on 19–20 April in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The EU–Rio Group Ministerial Meeting will take place on 20 April. The Rio Group now includes virtually all South and Central American states; in addition, there is a representative of the Caribbean nations that changes each year. The Ministerial Meeting will discuss, among others, energy, the environment and climate change, the fight against poverty and drugs, international law, strengthening of multilateralism and the situation in Haiti.
The objective of the Ministerial Meeting between the EU and Mercosur on 19 April is to explore means of continuing the negotiations on Association Agreements that have been underway since 2000. Mercosur is the world’s fourth largest economic area, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela.
At the meeting of EU and Andean Community Foreign Ministers on 19 April, the topics on the agenda are regional integration, the principles of rule of law, sustainable human development, the environment and drugs. The Andean Community consists of Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia and Peru.. The intention is also to announce the opening of negotiations on Association Agreements between the EU and the Andean Community.
Finland will participate in the meetings under the leadership of Deputy Director General Matti Pullinen from the Department for the Americas and Asia of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Other meetings held in Santo Domingo during the same week are an EU–Mexico Joint Committee Meeting and a meeting between the EU Troika – i.e. the current and future Presidencies of the European Council, and the European Commission – and Central American Foreign Ministers.
Additional information: First Secretary Anu Vuori-Kiikeri, tel. +358 9 160 56431, and Head of Unit Jukka Pietikäinen, Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, tel. +358 9 160 56360