People Power Through Mercosur Parliament?

You have got to give it to the Latin Americans. When it comes to people power, they certainly have got it! Remember what happened with the Free Trade Area of the Americas(FTAA), which was scheduled to take off in 2005? It was in Brussels, in 2002, that I started writing about the FTAA, and it certainly looked like it was going to happen.

But the Latin Americans got big on people power--and used it to good effect. In Wikipedia, description of the FTAA is "proposed". Never to have happened. A flop.

Unlike the Latin Americans, the AU countries and their relations, by way of the ACP Group, with the EU on the EPAs continues apace as if regional integration à la européen would be the best transplant for the African continent.

It seems like the Africans haven't quite gotten round to the effect of people power in the way our Latin American friends have. So sophisticated they appear to be in this regard that they have, as an article maintains, considered the:

...initiative to implement mechanisms of people's participation in the Parliament of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) similar to the street parliamentarianism in Venezuela

Is it any surprise that it is Venezuela that is proposing this idea?

The mind boggles;-)

MERCOSUR's Parliament, a Test of Accountability to its Citizens?

Let the celebrations begin!

MERCOSUR's first-ever Parliament will open on 7 May...

at Uruguay’s Legislative Palace and in its first year will have an operational monthly budget of 30.000 US dollars (from:http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=10337&formato=HTML

This is fantastic news coming from a regional bloc that was coming under criticism for losing focus on its regional integration efforts.

Here's what we know from the article above about the Parliament:

1. Montevideo was chosen as the seat for the group’s Parliament

2. the ceremony is scheduled in Uruguay (the country has rotating Chair)



3. the Mercosur Council, (Foreign Affairs and Economy ministers) still have to decide on the 2008/2010 budget during a meeting scheduled next May in Paraguay

4. The Parliament bill will be split, half of it according to the number of legislators from each country and the other half based on GDP of each member

5. Legislators will not be paid for their work in the regional parliament and the basic staff in 2007 will be limited to 25.

I guess my title might have been a bit premature, considering the parliament only opens in some eight days, but, still, it's worth ruminating over the extent to which a regional parliament will make MERCOSUR more accountable to its citizens.

This news comes on the heels of the (very) personable Mrs Kirschner, First Lady of Argentina, wooing Mexico's President Felipe Calderon into getting into Mercosur, which currently comprises: Argentina; Brazil; (Associate members) Chile/Bolivia; Paraguay; Uruguay; and venezuela.

Here's a quick list of websites of regional parliaments:

African Union / Pan-African Parliament:http://www.pan-african-parliament.org/index2.htm

European Union:http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/default_en.htm

ECOWAS:http://www.parl.ecowas.int/

Andean Community:http://www.comunidadandina.org/ingles/sai/estructura_6.html