Men and women involved in social and political movements and organisations in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe met in Vienna from 10-13 May 2006 to express their opposition and resistance to the neoliberal free trade policies that governments in both regions are implementing in their countries, and which they propose as a framework for a new Association Agreement.
They reject efforts by the EU to create a Free Trade Area for the entire Latin American region by 2010, as well as the expressed intention to expand existing agreements with Mexico and Chile, establish a similar agreements with Mercosur, Central America and the Andean Region.
They also came together to further social and political dialogue among peoples, because they defend their right to propose alternatives and they believe in their capacity to formulate them.
The concerns that bought them together in Rio and Madrid, and which finally gave rise to the first social forum, Linking Alternatives, in Guadalajara in May 2004, are still issues in both Latin America and the European Union.
The lessons from ten years of NAFTA and six years of the EU-Mexico Association Agreement are sufficiently clear to justify their political positioning on a model of free trade that is based on secrecy and asymetry in the relationship between rich and poor stakeholders.
