“We must carry on supporting the EU-Mercosur agreement,” urges Luis Yáñez, S&D Group spokesperson for Eurolat and Chair of Delegation for relations with the Mercosur countries.
MEPs and colleagues from Latin America have been adding fresh impetus to the bilateral relations between the two continents at the second plenary session of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat) in Montevideo last week.
The members of the Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament have held meetings with progressive deputies from the region to analyse the political, economic and social perspectives in Europe and in Latin America.
Luis Yáñez-Barnuevo, S&D Group spokesperson for Eurolat: “The left has successfully established itself as a political alternative for hope and progress in Latin America, a continent that is moving forward, albeit with differences between countries, and one that maintains privileged ties with Europe.”
The S&D Group spokesperson emphasised that “Latin America successfully met the challenge of the economic crisis with determination and has also managed to cut poverty and destitution (by 1.4 percentage points) compared to 2009. But much still has to be done to improve the redistribution of wealth.”
Yáñez-Barnuevo added: “The key to confronting globalisation and the financial crisis is cooperation. Europeans and Latin Americans represent a thousand million citizens. We also share the same history, state of law and a system of values. For the future of Europe, Latin America is vital. Its economy, which is the world’s fourth-largest, is worth 608 trillion dollars. We cannot let this market slip away from us.”
“We have taken big strides, such as the conclusion of the free trade agreements between the EU and Central America as well as the Andean Community. Now we must forge ahead on the agreement with Mercosur, which should not see any ill effects from the founding of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in 2008.”
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