| |
|
|
||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Report of the Fifth Meeting of the Executive
Committee 1. Introduction On the invitation of the Argentine representative, Deputy Marcelo Stubrin, the Fifth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA) was held in the city of Buenos Aires on 9 and 10 August 2002. The meeting was attended by accredited representatives of seven of the member countries of the committee, plus a special guest from the Uruguayan parliament. The four subregions of the Americas were represented, as can be seen from the list of participants in Annex 1. 2. Opening remarks The meeting was opened by Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette, President of FIPA, who thanked the representative of the host country for his kind hospitality, the participants for attending, and the secretary for coordinating and preparing the event. The president also informed the meeting that Felipe Michelini of Uruguay was attending as a special guest of the committee and invited him to participate in the discussions. The president reviewed the agenda and the discussions began after it was approved by the committee members. 3. Discussion of the process of ratifying the Rome Statute on the ICC Senator Hervieux-Payette gave a brief report on her participation in the parliamentary conference on ratification and application of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, held in Madrid on 27 and 28 June 2002. The Argentine representative, Deputy Stubrin, presented a document containing a report on the current status of ratification of the Statute of the International Criminal Court by the countries of the region. The Guatemalan representative, Deputy Nájera, explained his country's position on this issue. He stated that although political will existed, ratification of the Rome Statute required a reform of the Guatemalan Constitution, and therefore it was a complicated process that would require time. After the discussion, the members of the committee agreed that, although it is controversial, the issue of the International Criminal Court would be included on the agenda for the next plenary meeting of FIPA.
The committee members discussed possible topics for the next plenary session in Panama. They agreed that FIPA's deliberations could centre on topics related to the economic and financial crises in the region, an analysis of tax systems in the hemisphere and the prospects for establishing efficient control mechanisms that would allow distortions in foreign trade to be corrected, under a framework of trade integration. With regard to the first topic, subjects such as the role of multilateral organizations in foreseeing and preventing crises, the negative impact of high investment risk classifications in some countries and the political instability generated by economic imbalance, were considered to be problems associated with economic and financial crises. Since these crises had significant repercussions throughout the hemisphere, FIPA parliamentarians would seek to propose common solutions which, in the frame of the globalization process, would enhance the role of democracy in economic, political and social development. As for fiscal issues, the members agreed that it was important for parliamentarians of the hemisphere to become acquainted with tax systems in the different countries. To that end, an expert could be invited to explain how regional tax systems operated and outline the relationship between the tax burden and the trade competitiveness of countries, social development and economic growth. With regard to the permanent working group that follows
up the process of negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
it was mentioned that, among others, there would be a discussion on distortions
in trade and the establishment of dispute settlement mechanisms to expeditiously
resolve trade-related disputes. The representative of the host country, Legislator Blandón of Panama, proposed that the plenary meeting be held in the second or third week of February 2003. The members agreed that the plenary meeting would be held on Thursday, February 20th and Friday, February 21st, with participants arriving on the 19th and leaving on the 22nd.
The members of the Executive Committee discussed the organization's strategies and priorities and reached agreement that: · It was important for FIPA to carry out institutional actions to mobilize parliamentarians and public opinion to act in special situations. · The Executive Committee should continue to speak out on matters affecting the member countries and establish a mechanism that would permit it to react in emergency situations. · FIPA should be fully involved in hemispheric issues and permanently monitor events in the inter-American system. It was important to permanently follow up in the actions of the executive branch of government to establish true parliamentary participation in the hemisphere. · FIPA should become a means whereby legislators could transmit their opinions to national executive branches, as legitimate spokespersons for the peoples of the Americas. · FIPA should be the instrument used by the continent's parliamentarians to continually monitor the FTAA negotiations. · FIPA should promote the development of harmonious legislation through inter-parliamentary dialogue in the hemisphere. 6. Creation of a permanent technical secretariat of FIPA The members of the Executive Committee agreed on the need to establish a permanent secretariat for FIPA, which would not only operate as the forum's administrator but would also monitor implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the plenary and the Executive Committee. It would also prepare the meetings of the plenary, including the preparation and dissemination of working documents, distribution of invitations and logistical coordination, among others. It was agreed that the secretariat would be composed of one official from each geographic subregion and an executive secretary designated by the president of FIPA, for a total of five people. With regard to financing for this initiative, the committee agreed that the funds should come from the member parliaments of FIPA. However, there was no consensus on how to determine the proportionate contributions to be made by each country. Therefore, the president was asked to prepare a more detailed proposal on the operation and financing of the secretariat, to be discussed at the next meeting of the committee.
7.2. Presentation on the work space of the Executive Committee
and training for the members The members of the committee received training in use of the workspace and expressed their satisfaction with the initiative. They also made a commitment to use this tool to become pioneer users of the Virtual Parliament of the Americas.
The members discussed the different options and voted to
chose the following logo: The new FIPA logo represents-through symbol and colour-both the aims and members of the organization. The graphic elements in the logo include a map of the Americas, an elongated world sphere superimposed on a golden background, the central name text element "FIPA", the long form name text elements in Spanish and Portuguese above, followed by the long form name text elements in English and French beneath. 8.2. Buenos Aires declarations 8.3. Next meeting of the Executive Committee Respectfully submitted,
PARTICIPANTS IN THE MEETING The Hon. Céline Hervieux-Payette, Senator (Canada) Mr. Mateo Barney (Canada) NORTH AMERICA CENTRAL AMERICA CARIBBEAN SOUTH AMERICA HOST COUNTRY OTHER PARTICIPANTS ANNEX 2 FIPA/EC/2002/DEC02/e/vf Original: Spanish Declaration of FIPA's Executive Committee concerning the economic crisis in the region Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 10, 2002. Original: Spanish Declaration of FIPA's Executive Committee concerning the criteria for risk rating of some countries in the Americas Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 10, 2002. The Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA) gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, expresses its concern for the subjective criteria used by private bond rating agencies, which have increased the risk rating of certain developing countries of the Americas, ignoring the real economic situation in each of them with grave consequences for their financial stability, while generating additional poverty and undermining governance.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Important
Notices © 2005 FIPA - Inter-Parliamentary
Forum of the Americas, All Rights Reserved. Web Services by Lola Giraldo |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
