EU Ready to Help Colombia Peace Efforts
The European Union said Tuesday it is ready to provide "concrete assistance" to Colombia to help implement any peace accord it can reach with FARC rebels after years of bloody conflict.
Talks between the center-right government of President Jose Manuel Santos and the Marxist-inspired FARC have so far produced three tentative accords out of five outlined in an overall peace deal.
These include cooperation on ending the drug trade, agricultural reforms and FARC's future as a conventional political group.
"I want to stress that the EU will continue to lend its support to the negotiations," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said after meeting Santos in Brussels.
"We also stand ready to provide concrete assistance to Colombia in the implementation of the peace agreement once negotiations are concluded," he said.
Van Rompuy gave no specific details of the possible aid but highlighted the need to help "the numerous victims" of the conflict and promote social reconciliation.
Colombia's internal conflict has left 220,000 dead and displaced 5.3 million people over the past 50 years, according to official figures.
Van Rompuy said the EU would stand by the talks, held in Havana over the past two years.
For his part, Santos said EU support for the peace process was hugely important, with the talks at a "crucial stage".
In Spain Monday, Santos said FARC and the government were now working on the two most sensitive issues -- agreements on reparations for war victims and the disarmament and reintegration of the 8,000-strong rebel force.
"This is why we are looking for political support so that any decision which Colombians take have international support," he said.
Santos was re-elected for a second term in June, defeating a right-wing challenger who had threatened to end the talks.
The Colombian president is using his tour to lobby for the creation of a European fund which would be used to finance agricultural projects that would replace cocaine cultivation.
Santos will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday, then go on to Portugal, France and Britain.
Source: Agence France Presse
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