MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands in Sunday's Mercosur summit agenda

Mercosur Foreign Affairs ministers will be discussing next Sunday in Paraguay the European Union decision to include in its constitution the Falkland Islands, currently under British sovereignty, reported Thursday the Paraguayan press in Asunción.

The EU constitutional decision has been considered "with concern in Mercosur although so far no president has made a public statement on the issue" added the press report.

"The Malvinas islands in the South Atlantic are claimed by Argentina and it doesn't seem an appropriate decision by the EU to include them in the Constitution as a British Overseas Territory, particularly when the islands are under dispute and in 1982 they generated an international war", said an undisclosed source from Paraguay's Foreign Affairs ministry.

The Foreign Affairs ministers of the four Mercosur member countries, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay will be meeting next Sunday in Asunción in advance of the first of two annual presidential summits on Monday.

As of first of July the Mercosur rotating chair will be occupied by Uruguay until the end of 2005. Besides the four founding members, Mercosur includes as associates, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela.

Next Monday's summit includes the signing of several agreements regarding human rights; cooperation for the prevention of extortive kidnapping and creating a data bank on terrorist groups' activities.

A landmark for the customs union group will be the approval of the Structural Fund with an initial capital of 200 million US dollars geared to promote education, infrastructure works and create jobs to help combat poverty.

A controversial issue to be discussed is the launching, or not, of a Mercosur Parliament, Parlasur, a much cherished Brazilian initiative but which is resisted by junior members Paraguay and Uruguay. Last week Brazil floated the idea of a regional House with Brazil and Argentina holding 31 seats each and Paraguay and Uruguay 16 each.

Meantime in Buenos Aires Brazilian vice-president Jose Alencar highlighted that Mercosur is the "top priority" of his country in the region and working closely with Argentina will be "mutually beneficial for both countries". "Mercosur is the first step. We have to consolidate Mercosur and reach a state organization which becomes an example and for other countries of the continent to join", said Mr. Alencar.

Nevertheless the Brazilian top official said that each country "has its own characteristics and certain conditions for the production of certain goods", but "we must also manage every day the difficulties that keep emerging".

Argentina has repeatedly complained about the "flooding" of Brazilian industrial goods in its domestic market and has threatened to impose special tariffs and a quota system to compensate for the "asymmetries" between the two countries economies.

When asked about some recent rough remarks from Brazilian president Lula da Silva regarding the "stormy" relations with ("grumpy") Argentina, Mr. Alencar said, "on the contrary, what we want is for the whole region to work united".

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner administration has on more than an occasion publicly expressed its displeasure with President Lula da Silva's policy of having Brazil in the main stage of world affairs, because this means "relegating the consolidation of Mercosur and delaying the South American Community of Nations process".