The European Commission seeks to develop a confident working relationship between all interested stakeholders in the external policy field.

In addition, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness stipulates that policies are more likely to lead to the effective reduction of poverty if they are developed with meaningful opportunities for the participation of those they are likely to affect. 

For these reasons the European Commission organizes different meetings and establishes continuous contacts with civil society. The Commission attaches great importance to the dialogue with civil society particularly in the framework of the negotiations for an Association Agreement between the EU and the Andean Community. On the one hand this guarantees the full transparency of the process of negotiations and on the other hand, it allows for feedback through positive and fruitful dialogue.

The European Commission organized a First Civil Society Forum on EU-Andean Community relations, in March 2005 in order to allow for an open, transparent exchange of views on EU relations with the Andean Community. Since then, contact with civil society has been continuous.

In April 2007, before the first round of negotiations for an Association Agreement, civil society was invited to attend a meeting with European Commission representatives in order to have an open exchange of views on the negotiations. Following this first experience and in view of the second round, another meeting was held on 15 November 2007. The next meeting of this type is scheduled to take place in Brussels on 29 April 2008.

Moreover, the last day of each round a EU-CAN joint debriefing session with civil society representatives present is starting to become a common practice.

In addition, the Commission strongly encourages its partner countries to associate also with their civil society. Apart from national undertakings, regular meetings are encouraged. For instance, a very well attended regional meeting on the negotiations of the EU-CAN Association Agreement took place in November 2007 and a Civil Society Workshop with assistance of 75 Latin-American NGOs networks took place in December.

The European Commission aims to support civil society in the Andean region notably through a regional project SOCIECAN (Acción con la Sociedad Civil para la Integración Andina). Intention is to have a better structured civil society network at Andean Community regional level and to allow this civil society to accompany the EU-CAN negotiations process. The events in Lima were in part funded by this project.

Dialogue between civil society organizations

The Commission appreciates and supports the efforts of the European Economic and Social Committee to establish a relationship with organized civil society in the Andean Community, i.e. the Andean Labour Advisory Council and the Andean Business Advisory Council, with which it has signed a memorandum of understanding.

 

In addition, an Indigenous Consultative Committee has also been created recently and the EU and the CAN General Secretariat are studying how it can be developed and supported.