Translation of "Plan d'action économique pour l'Amérique centrale " (French → English) :

C. whereas the guidelines for the negotiation of the future Agreement must ignore neither the serious social, economic and political deficit which exists in most Central American countries, nor the differences in development between the two regions, nor the nature of economic relations in Central America: regional trade concentrated on a small number of countries, a high level of dependence on exports of traditional products and lo ...[+++]w levels of EU FDI in the region, and so on;

E. whereas the guidelines for negotiation of the future agreement must take account of the economic, political and social circumstances which exist in most Central American countries, and the differences in development between the two regions, as well as the nature of economic relations in Central America: regional trade concentrated on a small number of countries, a high level of dependence on exports of traditional products and ...[+++]low levels of foreign direct investment by the EU in the region, and so on,

C. whereas the guidelines for the negotiation of the future Agreement must ignore neither the serious social, economic and political deficit which exists in most Central American countries, nor the differences in development between the two regions, nor the nature of economic relations in Central America: regional trade concentrated on a small number of countries, a high level of dependence on exports of traditional products and l ...[+++]ow levels of EU FDI in the region, and so on;

identify in the negotiating guidelines, taking account of the vulnerability that is characteristic of Central American socio-economic, environmental and democratic development, the central issues on which the agenda and political dialogue will focus, including the updating of aims and objectives in such issues as democratic governance, combating terrorism, the maintenance of peace and security and conflict management; include further new issues such as the reduction of poverty, support for social cohesion, migration and human exchanges, the fight against crime and especially violent crime with transnational connections (trafficking in d ...[+++]rugs, arms and people, and the activities of organised gangs such as "las Maras") and so on; and propose specific action for adopting common positions in international fora and at the United Nations in such a way as to achieve a genuine international political consensus between the two regions;

The necessity to take further steps towards economic integration was acknowledged by the Heads of State of the CA countries, who committed in March 2002 to adopting an action plan to complete the CA customs union by December 2003.

In the same sense, the PRRAC (Action Plan for the Reconstruction of Central America) adopted after hurricane Mitch seeks to strengthen the capacity of the local authorities in the field of disaster preparedness through training and to reduce the vulnerability of the population through awareness-raising.