European Parliament
A7-0010/2012
Kristian Vigenin  (S&D ). -
Mr President, our report was not only political, it was also an intellectual challenge – an attempt to describe the current situation, to foresee future developments and, on that basis, to outline policy proposals for our relations with the BRICS countries.
It is time for us to wake up. In many cases the EU institutions and the European leaders still live in a world of the past that no longer exists. Our eurocentric views and approaches often lead to failures, or half successes, for us on the global scene. We need to catch up with reality. Baroness Ashton, you should take this report not as a criticism of you, but rather as a call for action.
However, I would like to warn against attempts to simplify the picture and to regard the BRICS countries as a kind of unified political bloc. Indeed, we have no interest in seeing them move closer to one another to create a counterweight to the EU that will not necessarily be based on the principles and values we find important. That is why I would recommend an intensification of bilateral relations without artificially pushing these countries towards greater cohesion.
The European Parliament can play an important role here. Parliamentary cooperation with some of these countries is producing good results. Others seem to be less interested, but that should not discourage us. A good step would be for the European Parliament to be invited to participate in bilateral summits.
As regards Brazil, I am one of those who very much supported the establishment of a bilateral parliamentary cooperation committee and I am sure that this will be a reality as of 2014. By the way, the amendment which mentions this possibility in the report was introduced by the S&D Group, and specifically by Ana Gomes.

