The demand was made by CESTA- Friends of the Earth El Salvador, on Monday 19 April, when the new negotiations round between Central America and EU delegates began in Brussels.

The negotiations with the Central American countries began in late 2007, except for Panama, which officially joined last month. Although the agreement was expected to be signed in 2009, the negotiations were suspended as a result of the coup d’etat in Honduras, and were resumed in February of 2010.

Some of the reasons why the Europeans are negotiating with Central
America is to have access to infrastructure (roads, ports, airports), transportation and connections to trade with the north and south of America.

They also seek unlimited access to raw materials of this region, water sources, biodiversity and exclusive intellectual property rights such as “biopiracy”, which is the appropriation of biological resources of the jungle and forests of Central America.
Therefore, the negotiations have faced serious difficulties in the handling of labor rights, migration and especially environmental issues, since they threaten the natural richness of the region, for putting the interests of foreign corporations before the peoples’ lives.

“The European corporations are the ones benefiting from these agreements and our government should withdraw from these negotiations”, said Jose Acosta, of CESTA, in a press conference called to mark Earth Day.
The person in charge of the campaigns of CESTA also considered that the EU negotiation process has been secret, with no transparency and antidemocratic, without accountability mechanisms. He said the texts are not available to the people. “The EU has set themes, times and priorities”, said Acosta.

Towards Madrid

The Association Agreements promoted by Europe with Central America, the Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations will form a group during the next Summit of Heads of State and Government of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in Madrid, Spain.
As a result of this, social organizations from Latin America and Europe have called an Alternative Peoples Summit 2010, from May 14 through 18.
The Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT) will session as part of this event, to try cases of human rights violations by European transnational corporations operating in Latin America.