Mr President, Commissioner, I would firstly like to thank the political groups in this House for their cooperation in the production of this report, which has been unanimously approved by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy and I would like to stress this cooperation since it does not happen very often. Secondly, I would congratulate the Commission on its impeccable negotiation of this association agreement with Chile – as Commissioner Patten has pointed out – taking up the suggestions of the European Parliament in relation to the timetable and overcoming the difficulties caused by the negotiation guidelines. Commissioner Patten asked us to trust in his judgment in order to overcome the problems relating to the timetable and he has been proved right. The result, Mr President, is that we have the most innovative, ambitious and global agreement the European Union has ever concluded with a third country which is not a candidate for accession. An agreement which has been described by the Commission – correctly I believe – as an agreement for the twenty-first century, a fourth generation plus agreement. I believe we must be pleased that this agreement has been concluded with a country such as Chile, since in a way this agreement is a recognition of the great civil maturity of the citizens of that country and their decisive desire for openness and trade. As Commissioner Patten said to us a moment ago, this agreement also represents a message of hope to a region which is currently experiencing a difficult situation: instability in Venezuela, crisis in Argentina, the hopes and challenges arising from the election of President Lula da Silva in Brazil, poverty on the subcontinent and the phenomenon of violence in Colombia. I would particularly express my gratitude for the words of Mr Patten, who, on behalf of the European Parliament, is also going to communicate a message of solidarity to the Colombian authorities in relation to the attack which killed many people in Bogotá last weekend. This agreement – as the Commissioner quite rightly pointed out – takes a similar approach to the Association Agreement with Mexico which has lead to an increase in commercial transactions since its entry into force and which is an agreement which goes much further than these requirements, since it provides for the liberalisation of 100% of transactions, many going much further than the forecasts established in the negotiations of the World Trade Organisation. I would like to highlight an aspect which I believe to be particularly important, and that is that Chile has concluded this association agreement with the European Union before concluding its agreement with the United States. I would also stress that the Commission has stated that this agreement goes beyond mere commercial thinking, since association agreements try to establish a strategic partnership based on the principles and rights contained in the democratic clause for both parties. This agreement is very rich in terms of commercial liberalisation. It involves almost 100% of products, not just agricultural products, but products of every type, it establishes stipulations relating to agreements and technical clauses, it lays down the greatest degree of liberalisation ever to have been created in an agreement on the services sector and also establishes, Mr President, the most generous treatment Chile has ever given to a third country, and, for the first time in negotiations with the European Union, it lays down accessibility for foreign investors in an agreement of this nature. I believe that this agreement completes the network of agreements being negotiated at the moment. The only one remaining is that with Mercosur, and we are awaiting negotiation guidelines for agreements on political dialogue and cooperation with the Andean and Central American Community, which we hope – as Parliament has requested on many occasions – can become association agreements. In this way, Mr President, I believe we will be able to respond to the difficult situations being experienced by certain Latin American countries and create an extensive range of relations between our two regions which should culminate – and this is what Parliament wants – in the coming summit of Heads of State in Mexico, and we hope that these agreements can lead the way to a strategic and bi-regional partnership which will result in this global partnership we want to see. Therefore this agreement, Mr President, represents a geographical consolidation of the existing links between both regions, which are destined to be political, commercial and strategic partners, and increases the tools at our disposal for responding to the challenges and uncertainties we are faced with in this globalised world. I would like to thank all the political groups for their positive and constructive cooperation in the issuing of this favourable opinion on the association agreement.

Political group: PPE-DE