Call for a new organisation of the human family

The presidencies of the Council of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) and of the Commission of Bishops of the European Community (COMECE) have welcomed the results of the eighth cycle of negotiations in November on the association agreement between Latin American countries, gathered in Mercosur, and the European Union.

The Latin American and European Bishops met in Rome on January 16 to evaluate the latest developments in the relations between the two groups and the possible contribution of the Church.

This meeting follows a Social Congress, held last May in Madrid, in which 150 representatives of Latin American and European episcopates discussed the Church's viewpoint on relations between Latin America and the UEU in anticipation of the EU summit held, also in the Spanish capital, in mid-June.

At the Rome meeting CELAM and COMECE also expressed their satisfaction at the association agreements signed between the EU and Chile and Brazil in Brussels in November and at the first EU-Mexico forum on political and economic cooperation held in the same month.

The Bishops' Conferences said that these were positive signs that made possible the construction of a world order called for in Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris and to which Pope John Paul II referred in his latest message on the occasion of the World Day of Peace on January 1: "These various bonds between Latin America and the European Union serve to contribute to the 'new organisation of all the human family' which the Holy Father proposes in his message for peace," said the Bishops.

When the attention of the political world and of public opinion in Europe are concentrated on the threat of war in the Middle East, the Bishops appealed to governments and peoples not to lose sight of the great difficulties facing many other regions, particularly Africa and South America. Countries like Argentine, Colombia and Venezuela today more than ever depended on the solidarity of the international community.

"The process of bringing closer the Latin American and European Union regions must be accelerated," says the communique issued at the end of the joint meeting which offered the bishops an occasion to inform themselves of the problems of their respective regions.

Among the future important stages in contacts between the two regions the Bishops identified the consolidation of the Mercosur-EU association agreement which is expected to be signed next March. "This agreement is of capital importance due to the grave economic and social difficulties facing Argentine and the other countries of the regional block. The European Parliament proposal for the creation of a bi-regional Solidarity Fund to help concretely those countries which are undergoing a grave crisis has found the support of the bishops."

CELAM and COMECE leaders also welcomed the steps being taken to conclude an agreement for political dialogue and co-operation between Central American states and the EU. This should lead to a free trade area following the conclusion of the Doha cycle within the World Trade Organisation.

However, they expressed their disappointment at the failure of WTO negotiations on the export of generic medicinals to poor countries which had to be concluded before the end of 2002. They also undertook to play their part on this matter in view of the next ministerial reunion of WTO at Cancun, in Mexico, at the end of this year.

The bishops also referred to the various civil society forums accompanying existing partnership and association agreements and said that they were agreed on joint participation on condition that the particular circumstances of the Church were respected within these forums.

They said that, in a world that is increasingly interdependent, the cultural and religious heritage which Latin America and Europe share is most significant for the peoples of these two continents.