EU-LAC Minister Summit Begins in Vienna
Vienna, May 11, 2006. (Prensa Latina) The fourth European Union-Latin American and Caribbean Ministerial Summit is kicking off in this capital with a speech by Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage is leading the island’s delegation to this meeting, which slogan is “Reinforce Strategic Association Between the Two Regions”.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who arrived in Vienna, is heading the Cuban mission to today´s forum, at which the final declaration is receiving final touches.
Lage’s agenda today includes meetings with Suleiman Jasir al-Hervis, OPEC Fund director (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), Alfred Gusenbauer, president of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, and EU commissioner Louis Michel, among others.
Parallel to the summit, a social forum “Linking Alternative 2” is holding a Peoples’ Permanent Court, where they are trying some 40 European transnational companies working in Latin America and the Caribbean for human rights and other abuses.