EU and Mexico to launch business dialogue and scientific agreement
Delegates at the second session of the EU-Mexico joint council in Brussels on 13 May reviewed progress on the conclusion of a science and technology agreement and were informed of a new Euro-Mexican business dialogue. The science and technology agreement will enable Mexican researchers to participate in all areas of the EU's Sixth Framework programme (FP6). At the meeting, the Commission revealed that it is applying to the Council for formal authorisation to negotiate such an agreement, and that once this process has been concluded and a mandate obtained, negotiations will get underway with a view to concluding an agreement in the second half of 2002. Delegates were also told of the Euro-Mexican business dialogue, an ambitious new initiative upon which the Mexican and European private sectors are embarking. The initiative is foreseen as creating a strategic forum, which will be used to make policy recommendations to the European and Mexican authorities and make full use of the opportunities created by the Free trade agreement. The Commission welcomed a Mexican proposal for a Memorandum of understanding on environmental cooperation between the EU and Mexico, which includes measures to protect the environment and ecological balances, and expresses a desire to examine these issues in greater detail. Both parties also agreed to initiate discussions in the near future on a Mexican proposal for an education agreement between itself and the EU.