Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), November 17, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - At its first working session, the 13th Ibero-American Summit unanimously approved the "Cardoso Report," a document containing the suggestions of a work group headed by the ex-President of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, on the future of the Conference.

The "Cardoso Report" was debated intensively by the 21 heads of State and Government present at the meeting, and it was decided that a permanent General Secretariat, responsible for coordinating the agreements made in the context of the Ibero-American Conference, will be established next year upon the occasion of the next Summit.

At the next edition of the Summit, scheduled to be held in Costa Rica, the statute of the Secretariat should be approved and the secretary-general selected. The secretary-general's authority will be limited to coordinating decisions, which will continue to be made solely by national leaders at the annual meeting of Presidents and Prime-Ministers. Spain and Panama have already expressed an interest in serving as headquarters of the Secretariat.

The Brazilian government hopes that, with the Secretariat, decisions made at the Summit will be implemented with greater agility. "It is not only President Lula who has asked for these meetings to be more practical. There has been an 'overdose' of these meetings, and all the Presidents need to concentrate on their domestic agendas. There is an excess of international obligations," in the view of Presidential International Affairs Adviser, Marco Aurélio Garcia. "Presidents of widely varied political tendencies complain that there is still much talk and little effectiveness in the Ibero-American Conference," the adviser concluded.

DISCUSSION OF THE FTAA

At a breakfast with Presidents Vicente Fox (Mexico), Nestor Kirchner (Argentina), and Ricardo Lagos (Chile), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva argued for the circumstantial alliance of countries to defend their interests in the context of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), when their demands coincide. "If two countries have the same position on government purchases, for example, they can seek to defend their positions together, which gives the FTAA a variable geometry," the Presidential adviser explained.

Garcia also emphasized the importance of the Summit for Bolivia, when he informed that "all the countries are backing the new government of President Carlos Mesa," who took over in October after the renunciation of Sanchéz de Lozada, at the peak of the gas crisis. (DAS)