They are changing the colour of the rubbish bins in Rio de Janeiro's Flamengo Park this week, in honour of an unprecedented summit of EU, Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Brazil's "marvellous city" this weekend. Two prime ministers who will not be arriving - Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, locked into patching up the Northern peace process - would find a particular irony in the colour change, which is from orange to green.
Nothing to do with Drumcree, the Rio city authorities insist, it is just that "green is more in keeping with the colour of the Flamengo's trees". There are those who say that this Rio summit is just such an exercise in cosmetics and truisms, a gathering of the great and good which will do little but produce resolutions in favour of peace, motherhood and sunshine.
Even one of its main promoters, President Carlos Menem of Argentina, warned two weeks ago that the summit was in danger of becoming nothing more than "a good social occasion" unless the EU took on board Latin American concerns about the Common Agricultural Policy, the bete noire of food exporters here. They cannot understand how a bastion of free market economics can justify spending 50 per cent of its budget subsidising farmers.
The Brazilian president, Mr Fernando Henrique Cardoso, had been equally blunt when he visited Europe in April. "Has the EU got the capacity to sort out its agricultural problems?" he asked his hosts. "If it wants to confirm its place on the world stage, it must deal with this issue." Playing Latin America's new role - that of a region powerful enough to pick and choose its own partners - he continued: "If not, it doesn't matter to us. We can talk to the US, with whom we have very good relations."
Reforming the CAP is obviously one of the most sensitive issues confronting the EU and can hardly be driven by outside demands. Nevertheless, at the last moment, Brussels gave a remarkable indication that it took this Latin American concern seriously.
Last Tuesday, the EU's Foreign Ministers agreed to enter into no-holds-barred negotiation on liberalising trade with Mercosur (Latin America's leading economic bloc) in July 2000. This is 12 months earlier than Mercosur leaders had thought likely and three or four years earlier than EU countries such as France and Ireland had originally argued for.
As far as many Latin Americans are concerned, this decision alone has made the summit a success before it has even started. Latin American ambitions for the summit go far beyond opening up particular markets, however. The EU, while still a slightly reluctant partner, may find that Rio can be as seductive in geopolitics as it is in the realm of the senses.
What is happening in Rio, in fact, is a very complex dance between several different partners but the key to the whole affair is that the US is going to be a wallflower. The choreographers of the summit, on both sides of the Atlantic, believe that a regional alliance between the EU and Latin America could be a major counter-balance to the global weight of the US as the 21st century opens.
Cultural and historic arguments are often used to back up this proposal. "There was always a strong link with Europe but we have been losing it in recent years," the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mr Luiz Felipe Lampreia, told The Irish Times on Tuesday. "We are now constantly consuming American products, sending our children to US universities, contacting American web sites. Meanwhile, Europe is moving away from us, towards its applicant member states from eastern and central Europe, for example. None of this is necessarily bad in itself but we must get back in full touch with each other."
At this point, European sceptics must be tempted to point out that the Latin American need for access to Europe is much greater than the European need for access to Latin America. After all, the EU currently trades more with Switzerland than with all of Latin America. "I would invert that proposition," Mr Lampreia replies confidently. "If Latin America forms a free trade area with the US, in 10 years' time, will Europe not find itself isolated and left behind in the world?"
This is where the dance steps get really tricky. Latin America is seeking to move reasonably quickly towards an "economic and political inter-regional association" with the EU (as defined by Mercosur leaders last month). But it is also involved in negotiations, primarily with the US, to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americans (FTAA), an alternative alliance which might shut Europe out of both American continents.
The putative deadlines for both sets of negotiations are 2005. From a Latin American point of view, the ideal resolution would probably be to finesse the two sets of talks and dance off the floor with two partners. No small ambition for an area which, just two decades ago, was a synonym for generals with dark glasses presiding over hopelessly backward economies. Today, parliamentary democracy is the dominant force in the region and rapid modernisation of industry and services has taken most observers by surprise.
There are major exceptions, of course. Despite a halting peace process, much of Colombia remains a war zone. Ecuador's shambolic economy is held back from total collapse only by a cruel freeze on personal bank accounts. And even where economies have prospered, societies have not: the rising business tide has not lifted the misery of Latin America's multitudinous poor.
Nevertheless, Latin America's new-look political and financial institutions have been stable enough to weather the storms which have left Asian tiger economies - and governments - in tatters. The dynamo of the continent is Mercosur, the "southern market" customs union comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Chile has committed itself to full membership and Bolivia is also an associate member.
Although still a fledgling grouping compared to the EU, the eight-year-old Mercosur is Latin America's economic block. Mercosur has become the favoured destination for EU trade (with a balance still very much in Europe's favour) and is the major force behind the current summit. If fact, Mercosur will have its own separate encounter with EU leaders on Monday morning before the full summit gets underway.
From the outside, it looks extraordinary that the other 29 Latin American and Caribbean countries are willing to let Mercosur effectively set the agenda for their relationship with Europe. There seems to be very little resentment, however, rather a general welcome for the fact that Mercosur offers an "umbrella" under which its neighbours can join in an encounter with EU leaders on Latin American soil.
Mexico, as co-chairman of the summit and current president of the broadly representative Rio Group, has played a key role in the procedure of bringing such diverse states as Costa Rica, Cuba and Peru to the same table with the same agenda. It is no secret that a subsidiary but significant aspect of the summit has been to improve basic contacts between Latin American countries, which are often surprisingly weak.
The summit's final agenda is very broad indeed, ranging from discussion of democratic institutions to reform of the UN, and with proposals on drug-trafficking likely to make more immediate news than economic issues, on which no dramatic breakthroughs are expected. Mr Lampreia insists that the most important thing about the whole encounter is not what it delivers in the short term but that it provides a sound foundation for future talks. "This summit must have many tomorrows," he said last week. "The windows it opens must remain wide."
Flying Down To Rio
Who's going to Rio? Leaders of 48 EU, Latin American and Caribbean countries. Who's going from Ireland? Bertie Ahern has pressing business in Belfast, so Mary Harney and David Andrews will represent the Government. When does it start? Tomorrow until Tuesday. What are they all up to? Isn't the carnival over? Yes, unfortunately. These are serious people on serious business. They are setting an agenda for an "economic and political inter-regional association", no less. What does that mean? They want to sell more goods to each other. What will they argue about? Mostly the CAP and not in public this time around. Is there anything else on their minds? Lots. Fighting drug barons. Culture and education exchanges. Reforming the UN. Making democracy work. Stealing a march on Uncle Sam on the eve of the 21st century. So will Rio change the world? It's a long shot, but it might.
