breaking the ice

The EU-Latin America/Caribbean summit is taking place from today till the 13th of May in Vienna. The summit will comprise Heads of State and Government of 60 countries of the European Union and of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Today the foreign ministers of these countries are having a preparatory meeting, and on 13 May there will be a number of sub regional meetings of individual countries and sub regions of Latin America and the Caribbean with the European Union.
Some of the Latin American Heads of States and Government are already in town for a view days, such as the Mexican President Vincent Fox, yesterday. Michelle Bachelet had a dinner together with the Austrian – Chilean Friendship Association, where Austria’s president Heinz Fischer is member.
The main aims of the summit are political dialogue, enhancement of trade relations and development cooperation.

The weird thing is, that with all this Head of States and governments, including Kofi Anan, there is less security personal and less streets closed then there will be once George Bush is in town.

When Dubja comes he will bring alone 800 people of his on security staff and 400 Advisors. If all the heads of states would travel with this amount of staff, Vienna would have to be evacuated just for the 60 governments to be represented, cause that would be around 72 000 people then just for the summit.

Parallel there is of course and alternative summit in Vienna where many civil society organisations take part. The Hero of those 3 days is Hugo Chavez.

I will miss all of this prominent figures and jump into my train to Belgrade in a minute.