European union reaches
Central American trade deal


The European Union has reached a trade accord with Costa Rica and other Central American states after a two-year roller coaster ride. The agreement is a major political victory for President Laura Chinchilla, who was in Madrid, Spain, to consult over the negotiations.

The details of the agreement have not been released. That will come today.

Anabel González, the minister of Comercio Exterior, headed the negotiations. She was one of the main negotiators for the free trade treaty with the United States.

The agreement comes at a good time because European Union and Latin American leaders also are holding a summit in Madrid where they have agreed to restart other stalled trade talks, and address other issues. The idea of liberalizing trade between the two sides is controversial over and above the Central American accord.

The three-day Madrid summit is expected to address a number of issues, including Haiti's recovery from its devastating earthquake and climate change.  Also on the agenda is deepening trade ties between the 27-member European Union and Latin America, specifically reviving free-trade talks between the European Union and the Latin American bloc, Mercosur.  The block consists of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Opening up the summit, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain talked about pacts already forged between the European Union and two Latin American countries, Chile and Mexico.  Spain hopes to make the Madrid summit a highlight of its rotating European Union presidency, which ends June 30.

Zapatero said the E.U. agreements with Chile and Mexico had brought many benefits and there is still plenty of unexplored territory to tap.

The European Union is Latin America's second-largest trading partner, and some European officials are eager to strengthen those trade ties, aware of growing competition from China, among other nations.

But France and several other E.U. nations are wary of a free-trade agreement with Mercosur, arguing it could hurt European farmers. Nevertheless, agreement was reached to resume talks on reaching a free trade agreement.

Overshadowing the Madrid summit is the financial crisis in Greece and its fallout, notably sharp drops in stock markets and the euro currency, despite a massive fallback package of loans for troubled E.U. economies.

Speaking to reporters in Madrid, E.U. permanent President Herman van Rompuy defended the bailout plan by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which totals nearly $1 trillion.  He noted European officials are also committed to strengthening the governance of the 16-nation Euro-zone of countries that use the euro currency. "This is a strong and credible package of decisions. Let me reaffirm the determination of the euro-area authorities to ensure the stability of the euro area as a whole, as a main contribution to the stability in the global economy," he said.

Euro-zone finance ministers have been meeting in Brussels to talk about tighter financial regulation, among other issues.

Costa Rican woman picked
for U.N. climate change role
 

U. N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica as executive secretary of the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to succeed Yvo de Boer.

Ms. Figueres is an international leader on strategies to address global climate change and brings to this position a passion for the issue, deep knowledge of the stakeholders and valuable hands-on experience with the public sector, non-profit sector and private sector, the U.N. said in a release.  Ms. Figueres has been involved in climate change negotiations since 1995, and served as a negotiator of both the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol. She also served as Vice-President of the Framework from 2008 to 2009, and as a member of the executive board of the Clean Development Mechanism in 2007.

From 1995 to 2003, she was the founder and executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas, a non-profit think tank for climate change policy and capacity-building.  From 1994 to 1996 she served with the U. S. Export Council for Renewable Energy as director of the Technical Secretariat, Renewable Energy in the Americas.

Ms. Figueres has served on many boards of non-governmental organizations intimately involved in climate change issues, including the Winrock International and the Voluntary Carbon Standard.  She has advised private-sector companies playing a leadership role in climate mitigation, including the Carbon Rating Agency.

Ms. Figueres was born in San José, Costa Rica, in 1956.  She is married to Konrad von Ritter and has two daughters, Naima and Yihana.

Nicoya man faces murder charge


A Nicoya man with the last names of Valencia Moraga has been jailed for investigation in the knifing death last week of Edson Danilo Moraga Cubillo, 22, in Barrio San Martín.