EU and Latin America Get Back Together at the Brussels Summit
Sixty countries from both regions met over two days at the EU headquarters in Brussels
After not meeting since 2015, it is fair to say that the relationship between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was in a state of disrepair. It is now back on track. National leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are together again, and they are keen to show it.
Sixty countries from both regions met over two days at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, between the 17th and 18th of July 2023 for what was just the third EU-CELAC Summit between these two regions, geographically separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
The Brussels summit follows the recent visit by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to Latin America in June 2023, where she met national leaders in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico to boost ‘neglected’ ties.
CELAC describes itself as an intergovernmental mechanism for dialogue and political agreement that seeks to advance the gradual process of integration of its region of over 600 million inhabitants. It also seeks to promote political cooperation between its region and other regions in the world, such as with the 27 member-states of the European Union. Launched in 2010, it is an alternative forum to the longer-established Washington D.C.-based Organisation of American States (OAS). Unlike OAS, CELAC’s membership does not include North America, consisting instead of the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba.
Both the European Union and the CELAC countries already do a lot of trade with each other, worth EUR369 billion according to recent data. EU investments support 2.75 million jobs in the region. Meanwhile, exports from the EU to the CELAC region support 1 million jobs in Europe.
Why have the two regions now warmed up to each other?
Two key words, climate change. The European Union’s plan is to transform its economy to address the impacts of climate change. This has produced a thirst for clean energy, critical raw minerals, and rare earth metals that are used to make things like the batteries that go into electric cars. This is happening at a time when the EU is looking to recover from its overdependence on Russian energy, de-risk its relationship with China, and diversify its international trade relationships. CELAC countries, just like the EU, also see the need to diversify their relationships and avoid getting caught up in the emerging economic and political tension between China and the United States.
There is a global scramble going on at the moment for clean energy and the critical resources that are essential for the green transition. The EU no doubt is keen to upgrade its relationship with this region to secure what it needs, particularly getting in ahead of its economic competitors such as China, which already has strong relationships in the region.
Friends in need are friends indeed. Latin America has a lot of these much-sought-after critical resources, particularly in Chile and Argentina. At the Brussels summit, the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, signalled how that upgrade in relations would take shape with the announcement of the EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA). This investment agenda, which is a sort of European-style Belt and Road Initiative, seeks to invest over EUR45 billion in more than 130 projects in Latin America and the Caribbean until 2027, which includes working with both Chile and Argentina and the Critical Raw Materials Club to strengthen sustainable supply chains.
However, this European investment agenda does not seek to travel a one-way road. It takes a respectful win-win approach and clearly appears to be about much more than just extracting much-needed resources from Latin America bound for the EU in the global north.
Speaking at the press conference in Brussels at the close of the summit, the Argentinian president, Alberto Fernández, said that ” this was the first time that we really crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s and talked about extractivism, I think it took five centuries but we managed it, I am saying that half in jest, but we have at last succeeded”.
The investment agenda also seeks to address the industrial and societal needs of the Latin American and Caribbean region. It supports working with countries in the region towards developing a climate-neutral economy. There are details, for example, which include helping Costa Rica electrify its public transport, building a new metro line in Colombia, and contributing to the Amazon fund.
It also aims to help close identified investment gaps by mobilising both private capital and public funding towards inclusive, sustainable development in areas such as human development, health, education, local value chains, and the digital transition. For example, there are plans to deploy 5G in Jamaica to help achieve all island-wide broadband access.
What was agreed at the Summit?
After the passing of so much time since they last met, this summit was very much a performative summit where the key message was that of old friends with shared values, interests, and cultural ties coming together, respecting each other, and strengthening their bi-regional partnership for the future. Just turning up and meeting together in this format strongly served that purpose.
The President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said, “This EU-CELAC Summit felt like a new beginning between old friends. These are times of great geopolitical change, and like-minded friends like the EU and Latin American and Caribbean partners need to get closer”.
There are good reasons to believe this is now the case. Overall, a lot was agreed upon. The summit’s final nine-page declaration had more than 40 points of agreement, and it strongly resembles a reaffirmation of the multilateral and international rules-based approach upon which both regions base their relationship.
With trade for sure playing a central role in this transatlantic relationship, there is official recognition in the summit's final declaration of the potential contribution that the proposed EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda could make.
There is also agreement on the need to further strengthen and develop trade and investment relations between the EU and CELAC countries and regions. This is the case at the moment as the EU and Chile, and the EU and Mexico, seek to modernise their individual trade agreements in the coming months.
The big elephant in the room with regards to trade is what to do about the huge but stalled EU-Mercosur free trade agreement between the EU and the Mercosur countries of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay that was concluded in 2019 after decades of negotiations but has not come into force because of new differences and opposition from civil society. The EU-CELAC summit declaration could only “take note of ongoing work between the EU and Mercosur”. It is clear that much more work still needs to be done to get this agreement over the line.
Beyond trade, there are some significant and noteworthy points of agreement in the final communiqué also worth drawing attention to. There is a significant paragraph acknowledging that slavery and the slave trade, including the transatlantic slave trade, were appalling tragedies in the history of humanity and a crime against humanity. This is quite a public acknowledgement from Europe, given that the historical European colonial powers (most of whom are EU members) played a central role in facilitating and profiting from the slave trade. However, the summit declaration goes no further than this; there is no suggestion, for example, of reparations for slavery, which some civil society groups have recently called for.
There is also a point of agreement on the “question of sovereignty over the Islas Malvinas / Falkland Islands”. The particular paragraph on this issue says that “the European Union took note of CELAC’s historical position based on the importance of dialogue and respect for international law in the peaceful solution of disputes.” The final wording, which has for the first time in an EU-CELAC summit declaration also included the Argentinian name for the islands, Islas Malvinas, was celebrated by the Argentinian foreign ministry as a triumph for Argentinian diplomacy. However, it has also proved rather controversial within the United Kingdom, a former EU member state and current NATO ally of many EU member states. Upon publication, Downing Street criticised the wording.
Also worth drawing attention to is a reference to CELAC member Cuba, the one-party communist island state, which clearly does not share the same democratic values of free and fair, inclusive, transparent, and credible elections that were also reaffirmed in the final summit declaration. Nevertheless, both the EU and CELAC members agreed on the necessity of ending the embargo imposed against Cuba and agreed that the re-designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism has introduced obstacles to international financial transactions with the island.
Of particular importance to CELAC countries is the agreement on stressing the “importance to fulfil the commitment by developed countries jointly to mobilise promptly USD 100 billion per year for climate finance to support developing countries, and to double adaptation finance by 2025”.
However, on the issue of great importance to the countries residing on the European side of the Atlantic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there was a rather weak point of agreement in the final communiqué. This is particularly so, given that both CELAC and EU countries are committed to abiding by the UN Charter, which upholds the concept of state sovereignty and prohibits the use of force or military aggression against other countries without the UN Security Council’s approval.
The best common denominator agreement that both sides could cobble together on the war in Ukraine was to express “deep concern” and a commitment to “support all diplomatic efforts aimed at a just and sustainable peace in line with the UN charter”. A stronger joint statement would have condemned the clear violation of the UN charter by Russia’s invasion of another European nation. One CELAC country, Nicaragua, even refused to agree to the paragraph on Ukraine in the final declaration.
What happens next?
At this year's summit, both sides committed to now meeting every two years. The next meeting will be in a Latin American or Caribbean country in 2025. But before then, there is a lot to be done, particularly in terms of investment, strengthening supply chains, and getting the pending free trade agreements over the line.
