An appeal “not to lose sight of the great difficulties that are today afflicting many regions in the world, in particular Africa and South America” was recently made by the presidents of the Council of the Episcopates of Latin America (CELAM), Archbishop Jorge Jiménez Carvajal, and of the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE), Bishop Josef Homeyer. The two met in Rome in recent days together with a select delegation of the two organizations. In November last year Archbishop Carvajal was kidnapped by the rebels of the FARC in Colombia, but later released. The Rome meeting was the first after the social Congress which brought together over 150 delegates of the episcopates of Europe and Latin America in Madrid in May last year (cf. SirEurope nos.19 and 20/2002). “Countries like Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela depend more than ever today on the solidarity of the international community. The process of rapprochement between the two regions of Latin America and Europe ought, in their view, to be accelerated”, declared the presidents of COMECE and CELAM at the end of their meeting. In this framework, the bishops stress, one issue of “capital importance” is the draft agreement of association between the European Union and Mercosur (“Common Market of the South”, established in 1991 with an accord between Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay), which will be discussed in March. Another very useful project, the bishops say, would be the “Bi-regional Solidarity Fund” proposed by the European Parliament to provide material aid to the countries of South America that are suffering from a grave economic crisis. The bishops also expressed their “regret” about the failure of the “negotiations at the World Trade organization for the export of basic medicines to the poorest countries”. A COMECE meeting on Africa will be held in Lisbon in February.
