Weekly Report - 23 April 2009 (WR-09-16)

NICARAGUA | EU agreement back on. The deputy foreign minister, Manuel Coronel Kautz, said on 20 April that Nicaragua would rejoin talks on the association agreement with the European Union (EU). Nicaragua had pulled out “temporarily" on 1 April after the EU and Costa Rica rejected its proposal for a common regional credit fund [WR-09-14], to which the EU would contribute 90% of the financing and Central America the remainder. Coronel said that Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega is now prepared to “listen" to alternative proposals regarding a common fund. Nicaraguan officials are due to join other Central American representatives in Brussels for “informal" meetings between the two regional blocs, scheduled to take place on 22-24 April.