A co-ordination meeting with the Spanish Ministry of Development was held on 6-8 June, focusing on UPAEP reform.
The discussion focused on reversing the tendency to increase the countries? debts to the Union and the measures to adopt at the upcoming August Congress in Rio de Janeiro. A set of measures were identified, comprising: renouncing the current payment conventions; their replacement by a single plan with equal criteria for all countries and which is realistic and viable for the members; the inclusion of automatic sanctions in the Acts of the Union; the establishment of a specialised group of nine countries that will have a very specific mandate to submit within two years? time its conclusions to the 2007 Advisory and Executive Council, anticipating the need for an extraordinary Congress to approve the modifications.
The proposals of Mercosul, the United States of America and Portugal were also studied; Canada and Spain indicated that they would soon circulate their proposals, in exchange for support.
