Union of South American Nations Formed

Union of South American Nations Formed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_South_American_Nations

The Union of South American Nations (Dutch: Unie van Zuid-Amerikaanse Naties, Portuguese: União de Nações Sul-Americanas, Spanish: Unión de Naciones Suramericanas, and abbreviated as Unasur and Unasul) is a supranational and intergovernmental union that will unite two existing customs unions – Mercosur and the Andean Community – as part of a continuing process of South American integration. It is modelled on the European Union.

The Unasur/Unasul constitutive treaty was signed on May 23, 2008, at the Third Summit of Heads of State, held in Brasília, Brazil. ^[2] According to the Constitutive Treaty, the Union's headquarters will be located in Quito, Ecuador. The South American Parliament will be located in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while its bank, the Bank of the South (Dutch: Bank van het Zuiden, Portuguese: Banco do Sul, Spanish: Banco del Sur), will be located in Bogota, Colombia.^[3] The Union's former designation, the South American Community of Nations (Dutch: Zuid-Amerikaanse Statengemeenschap, Portuguese: Comunidade Sul-Americana de Nações, and Spanish: Comunidad de Naciones Sudamericanas), abbreviated as CSN, was dropped at the First South American Energy Summit on April 16, 2007.^[4]

Contents [hide] 1 Overview 2 Origins 3 Structure 4 Proposed flag 5 Current work in progress 5.1 Single market 5.2 Infrastructure cooperation 5.3 Free movement of people 5.4 Monetary policy 5.5 Defense policy 6 Participating nations 6.1 Full members 6.2 Observer states 6.3 Non-participating territories 7 Facts and figures 8 Comparison with other regional blocs 9 Quotations 10 Proposed name change 11 See also 12 References 13 External links 13.1 Articles, Editorials, and Reports

Excerpts from the index:

Overview

At the Third South American Summit, on 8 December 2004, presidents or representatives from twelve South American nations signed the Cuzco Declaration, a two-page statement of intent, announcing the foundation of the South American Community. Panama attended the signing ceremony as an observer.

The leaders announced their intention to model the new community after the European Union, including a common currency, parliament, and passport. According to Allan Wagner Tizón, former Secretary General of the Andean Community, a complete union like that of the EU should be possible by 2019.

The mechanics of the new entity came out of the First South American Community of Nations Heads of State Summit, which was held in Brasília on 29 September–30 September 2005. An important operating condition of Unasur/Unasul is that no new institutions will be created in the first phase, so as not to increase bureaucracy, and the community will use the existing institutions belonging to the previous trade blocs.

Origins

Simón Bolívar, directly responsible for the independence of Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and parts of Peru and Bolivia in the early years of the 19th century, and honored with statues in the capital cities of practically every Latin American country, had the goal of creating a federation of nations to ensure prosperity and security after independence. Bolívar never achieved this goal, and died an unpopular figure because of his heavy-handed attempts to establish strong central governments in the nations he led to independence. Throughout the years, many in South America have called for social, political, and economic union. Unasur/Unasul is intended to be a concrete step towards the achievement of such union.

Structure

At the moment, the provisional structure of the Unasur/Unasul is as follows:

• The presidents of each member nation will have an annual meeting, this will be the superior political mandate. The first meeting was in Brasília (Brazil) on September 29 and September 30, 2005. The second meeting was in Cochabamba (Bolivia) on December 8 and December 9, 2006. The third meeting was held in Brasília on May 23, 2008.
• The ministers of foreign affairs of each country will meet once every six months. They will formulate concrete proposals of action and of executive decision. The President of the Mercosur's permanent representatives committee and the director of the Mercosur's department, the Andean Community's general secretary, ALADI's general secretary and the permanent secretaries of any institution for regional cooperation and integration, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization among others, will also be present at these meetings.
• A Secretary General would be elected, to establish a permanent secretariat in Quito, Ecuador.
• Sectorial Ministers' meeting will be called upon by the presidents. The meetings will be developed according to Mercosur's and CAN's mechanisms.
• The temporary Presidency will be held for a year and will rotate among the member countries between each CSN meeting. According to Decisions Reached in the Political Dialogue^[5] (Dutch: Besluiten Bereikt in de Politieke Dialoog, Portuguese: Decisões Tomadas no Diálogo Político, Spanish: Decisiones Alcanzadas en el Diálogo Político), which was signed during the I South American Energy Summit, a general permanent office will be created and this will be hosted in Quito, Ecuador.
• On December 9, 2005 a special commission was established in charge of advancing the process of South American Integration (Dutch: Commissie Belast met Impulsing van het Proces van de Zuid-Amerikaanse Integratie, Portuguese: Comissão Estratégica de Reflexão sobre o Processo de Integração Sul-americana, Spanish: La Comisión Estratégica de Reflexión a cargo de formular propuestas con miras a impulsar el proceso de integración sudamericano en todos sus aspectos). It consists of 12 members, whose function is to elaborate proposals that will help the process of integration between the South American nations.
• Executive Commission, which was created by the II CSN meeting, was transformed in the Political Commission or Delegates Council, according to Decisions Reached in the Political Dialogue^[6] (Dutch: Besluiten Bereikt in de Politieke Dialoog, Portuguese: Decisões Tomadas no Diálogo Político, Spanish: Decisiones Alcanzadas en el Diálogo Político).

[edit] Proposed flag

 

At present, the Unasur/Unasul has no official flag. However, a website established in 2002 (which became defunct in early 2008) called http://www.unionsudamericana.net advocating the formation of what is now called the Union of South American Nations displayed what is apparently a proposed flag for the organization which has a pale turquoise background with a circle of red stars surrounding a representation of the constellation of the Southern Cross rendered in white stars.

[edit] Single market

• One of the initiatives of Unasur/Unasul is the creation of a single market, beginning with the elimination of tariffs for non-sensitive products by 2014 and sensitive products by 2019.

[edit] Infrastructure cooperation

• There is an Initiative for Infrastructure Integration of South America (IIRSA) underway, which has received the support of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Andean Development Corporation.

• Unasur/Unasul started plans of integration through infrastructure cooperation with the construction of the Interoceanic Highway, a road that intends to more firmly link the Pacific Coast countries, especially Chile and Peru with Brazil and Argentina by extending highways through the continent, allowing better connections to ports to Bolivia and the inner parts of Argentina, Peru and Brazil. The first corridor, between Peru and Brazil, began construction in September 2005, financed 60% by Brazil and 40% by Peru, is expected to be ready by the end of 2009.

• The South American Energy Ring (Dutch: Zuid-Amerikaanse energie-Ring, Portuguese: Anel Energético Sul-Americano, Spanish: Anillo Energético Sudamericano) is intended to interconnect Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay with natural gas from several sources, such as the Camisea Gas Project in Peru and Tarija Gas Deposits in Bolivia. Though this proposal has been signed and ratified, economic and political difficulties in Argentina and Bolivia have delayed this initiative, and to date, this agreement remains more like a protocol than an actual project, since Chile and Brazil are already building LNG terminals to import gas from overseas suppliers.

[edit] Free movement of people

• Visits by South American citizens to any South American country (except French Guiana) of up to 90 days require only the presentation of an identity card issued by the respective authority of the travellers' country of origin. On 24 November 2006, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela waived visa requirements for tourism travel between nationals of said countries.^[8]

[edit] Monetary policy

Presidents of the 7 founding countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay) officially launched the South American Bank in Buenos Aires in December 2007. The heads of all the founding countries were at the ceremony, with the exception of President Tabaré Vazquez of Uruguay. The capital will be US$7b, with Venezuela responsible for US$3b and Brazil US$2b. The headquarters will be located in Caracas with offices in Buenos Aires and La Paz.

The Banco do Sul will finance economic development projects to improve local competitiveness and to promote the scientific and technological development of the member countries. Chile and Colombia participated on initial meeting, but they decided not to join the project.

The founding chart affirms that the Bank will promote projects in "stable and equal" manner and priorities will be to reinforce South America integration, to reduce asymmetries, and to promote egalitarian distribution of investments.

The Brazilian Minister Guido Mantega stated that the bank is not similar to the International Monetary Fund; it will be a credit institution similar to the World Bank or the BIRD.

===

South American leaders launch new alliance Unasur

Posted May 23rd, 2008 by Sahil Nagpal
http://www.topnews.in/south-american-leaders-launch-new-alliance-unasur-243705

Brasilia  - The representatives of 12 South American countries met Friday in Brasilia to launch the region's latest integration mechanism, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), born with the challenge of overcoming current tensions.

Former Ecuadorian president Rodrigo Borja (1988-1992) caused a stir late Thursday when he said that he would not accept the position of Unasur executive secretary.

Marco Aurelio Garcia, a senior foreign affairs advisor for Brazilian President Juiz Inacio Lula da Silva noted Friday, however, that the decision does not weaken the alliance.

"There was no exit because there had been no entry. President Borja had a very ambitious vision, and if it is ambitious it is hard for it to be understood by all members," said Garcia.

He added that Brazil declined to press for approval Friday of Lula's proposal to create a South American Defence Council.

"That will be debated in the second semestre (of 2008)," he stressed.

The project clashed with the opposition of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, among others.

Analysts note that current tensions in South America are the main challenge for Unasur.

The meeting that was taking place Friday was originally scheduled to be held in March in Colombia, but had to be postponed in the light of the Colombian cross-border raid on Ecuadorian territory on March 1, which killed Raul Reyes second in command of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and 26 other people.

The incident sparked a severe crisis between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela that has only been partially overcome since although Uribe promised never again to carry out raids beyond his country's borders.

In an effort to contribute to overcoming the crisis, Lula was set to meet Friday with Uribe and also with presidents Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. (dpa)

Unasur to boost financial self-sufficiency in S America
2008-05-24
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/24/content_8241536.htm

    BRASILIA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said here Friday that the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) will boost programs to help realize financial self-sufficiency in the region.

    After signing the bloc's constitutive agreement in the Brazilian capital, Correa said it was "a historical day for South America, which brings great expectation and hope."

    "We can do like the European Union (EU). As the EU has to explain why they united, we will have to explain to our children and grandchildren why we took so long to do it," he told a press conference.

    The Ecuadorian president said the integration will bring about fast and concrete results.

    "We can no longer be rhetorical, and Unasur must develop itself with concrete improvements in living standard of our peoples," he said.

    In addition, Correa mentioned the project of financial integration through the Bank of the South as "fundamental."

    "We can be self-sufficient in financial terms," said Correa, adding that, if member states keep their money "together," they will avoid having to "kneel down to get a small loan here and there."

    Correa also spoke of the importance of cooperation in energy and transportation in the region, saying that it "would safeguard our sovereignty and enhance our capacity to make our own decisions."

    He also agreed with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on the harmonization of social and educational policies in the region.

    For example, Correa said certificates are to be recognized in all Unasur countries.

    Referring to Brazil's proposal to create a South American defense council, Correa said he approved of it, although it was not his country's priority and that it would be necessary to reach true regional consensus before turning words into action in that matter.

    He called on all countries to "permanently commit to following international law," in reference to Colombia's military incursion into Ecuadorian territory on March 1.

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