Today's Date:

(...)

Multilateralism is an imperative of our time. At the end of the [second world] war, our countries understood that the acceleration of trade was creating a new world where action at international level had to be founded on law and cooperation. This led to the creation of the United Nations System, of which the nations of Europe and Latin America were founder members.

Sixty years of world growth, progress in information and communication technologies, the end of the colonial period and the disappearance of blocs have stepped up this development. Modern life consists in ever more intense human and financial exchanges and trade. This results in growing interdependence, as well as scourges, which can be controlled only by means of global measures.

This means that security problems, which raise the issue of the use of force, are now global ones and have to be addressed in a multilateral framework in order to be dealt with legitimately. To be persuaded of that, you have only to look at the threat failed States pose for world equilibrium and the deadlocks which unilateral action leads to.

States cannot be satisfied with ad hoc alliances or coalitions. They must organize the planetary city along the lines of a new political society.

This presupposes affirming and implementing fundamental rules and essential forms of solidarity globally. This is the role of the United Nations and of universal membership organizations which express the world's unity.

Yet our countries would not put up with being measured against a single yardstick without their identities being taken into account. The global scale is not always the most pertinent one. This is why France sets such great store by regional integration to which Latin America and Europe are now committed. At day-to-day level, solidarity is expressed in the framework of large entities which are all emerging poles of power. Regional integration is a bulwark against world storms. The European Union provides evidence of this with, for instance, the success of the euro.

To avoid the demise of tomorrow's multipolar world through conflicts, we must, however, create more forums for dialogue. Our dialogue is emblematic in this respect. I am also thinking of the organizations that transcend geographical boundaries and are melting pots for intercultural dialogue, such as the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Iberian American Solidarity Movement and the Commonwealth.

To ensure the development of multilateralism, action is necessary in four areas:

- First, on consolidating the fundamental norms, the principles crucial to international life in our time. This requires the universal ratification of the major human rights covenants such as those agreed in 1966 and the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, which owes so much to cooperation between Latin America and Europe.

It calls for the negotiation of new instruments, such as conventions on cultural diversity, and bioethics, and of more effective conventions against threats like the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. For, in all these areas, the only legitimate rule, and the best safeguard against the permanent temptation of unilateralism, is one which has been agreed and given the force of law.

- Secondly, there needs to be better implementation of the major conventions. Clearly, the Commission on Human Rights does not fully execute its mandate; the mechanisms for combating terrorism and proliferation and for environmental protection must be reinforced. We need to set up more effective monitoring and evaluation systems, improve support programmes for the developing countries and, if necessary, establish coercion and sanctions regimes.

- The third area is the democratization of the multilateral system, on which its legitimacy depends. Regarding the Security Council, enlargement is necessary, in both member categories. On the economic and social affairs front, we need an intergovernmental body capable of giving political impetus to the entire multilateral system and of enhancing its coherence.

We also must complete this system, in particular by creating a United Nations Environment Organization to address the global ecological crisis.

Finally, acting on the lessons learnt from the Genoa, Cancún and Porto Alegre summits, we should open up the international decision-making bodies to a greater extent to the countries of the South and systematize the dialogue with civil society.

- The last area is that of international solidarity, which we shall discuss this afternoon.

Chairman,

The challenges of our time stem from the collision between the unifying forces of globalization and the diversity of peoples and levels of development. Preventing it presupposes controlling these forces, organizing the polyphony of cultures and practising international solidarity. This is what multilateralism means.

Just as civil peace reigns in our countries thanks to everyone being subject to a single law, but one nevertheless respectful of everyone's freedoms, so we must now build an international rule of law within which our individual sovereignty will be limited by an agreement freely entered into. Because of their histories and shared values, our two continents are well placed to become the driving force for such action./.