The European Union-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) summit held on July 17 and 18, 2023 in Brussels symbolised a new beginning for Euro-Latin American relations. There are several reasons for this. Indeed, this mechanism for political consultation, created in the 1990s, had not met since 2015. The lack of harmony between the leaders of the two regions, whose political and economic agendas were marked by disagreements for much of the past decade, was a powerful obstacle to the holding of a summit of this magnitude.
However, the geopolitical transformations on both sides of the Atlantic (the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its political and economic consequences for European capitals, as well as the desire to escape the Sino-American strategic rivalry on the Latin American side) provided a political justification to the holding of this summit. In this sense, the organisation of multiple preparatory visits by high-level European authorities to Latin America (for several of them, it was their first contact with the region) between the end of 2022 and mid-2023 made it possible to build an agenda, and to outline the contours of what was possible in terms of results. The definition of the latter was essential, given the persistence of divergences between European and Latin American leaders, whether over the Ukraine issue or over the possible “historical reparations” that, according to some Latin American governments, should be paid by European countries for their role during the colonisation of Latin America. For many, it was difficult to get more than a photograph grouping the heads of state and government of both regions —which, in itself, was a significant political event.
Nevertheless, the summit achieved its goal: not only were the vast majority of the leaders present in Brussels, but a series of concrete measures were presented to strengthen the strategic relationship between the two regions, particularly on a fundamental issue: investment. China's increased presence in Latin America over the last twenty years is mainly due to its affirmation as a preferential trading partner for many countries in the region, particularly in South America. In the face of this, the United States has tried to reverse this dynamic, so far without much success. This is due, so far, to the lack of economic incentives to do so on the part of Latin American capitals.
In this regard, the announcements made during the summit regarding investments for the green and digital transition are particularly relevant, allowing the political impact of the summit to differ. The EU made available up to 45 billion euros in investments until 2027, either through the EU's Global Gateway initiative or through disbursements by its member states, financial and development institutions. As two of the world's most urbanised regions (74% and 81%, respectively), European governments and companies have cutting-edge technology at their disposal for sustainable urban requalification, making them major allies in promoting a fairer and more inclusive ecological and digital transition in Latin American and Caribbean cities. On the other hand, in financial matters, Latin American development banks (particularly the IDB and CAF), in alliance with large community institutions (such as the EIB) have presented innovative initiatives to finance the protection of biodiversity and the fight against climate change, by approving the swap of foreign debt for climate action, redirecting debt service payments (interest and capital) towards projects focused on the 2030 Agenda. During the summit, the will to strengthen a particularly successful area of EU-CELAC relations was announced: academic cooperation. In this regard, the implementation of programs such as Erasmus+ 2023 or BELLA (Building the Europe Link with Latin America) will contribute to strengthening long-term links between the research and education communities of both regions. Last but not least, it was announced that Colombia will host the next EU-CELAC summit in 2025. This is not a minor piece of information, considering the difficulty that the EU and CELAC capitals and presidencies had in making the Brussels summit a success.
This is where one of the main challenges of the Euro-Latin American strategic partnership lies: how to keep alive the dynamic generated by the Brussels summit? From a political perspective, the situation in both regions has not been very encouraging. In Latin America, political polarisation has intensified since last year. The victory of Javier Milei, who gives little importance to regional integration mechanisms, the diplomatic tensions between Ecuador and most of the region, following the invasion of the Mexican Embassy in Quito, as well as the legitimacy crisis of the electoral process in Venezuela have deepened the diplomatic “cracks” at the regional level, making it even more difficult to give institutional life to CELAC, and more generally, to the sub-regional integration processes. This is where one of the main challenges of the Euro-Latin American strategic partnership lies: how to keep alive the dynamic generated by the Brussels summit? From a political perspective, the situation in both regions has not been very encouraging. In Latin America, political polarization has intensified since last year. The victory of Javier Milei, who gives little importance to regional integration mechanisms, the diplomatic tensions between Ecuador and most of the region, following the invasion of the Mexican Embassy in Quito, as well as the legitimacy crisis of the electoral process in Venezuela have deepened the diplomatic “cracks” at the regional level, making it even more difficult to give institutional life to CELAC, and more generally, to the sub-regional integration processes. From Europe, the radicalisation of the public debate in the run-up to the European elections on 9 June, and the electoral growth of extreme right-wing candidates, is generating doubts and speculation as to the political orientations of the leaders of the new Community institutions.
In this regard, working to implement the investments and programmes announced in Brussels last year and to promote exchanges on education, gender equality, energy transition, science, technology and research, as well as climate change, is essential to ensure that the roadmap agreed by the heads of state and government in Brussels for the next EU-CELAC summit in 2025 remains a political priority on both sides of the continent.
Gaspard Estrada is a political scientist at Sciences Po, specializing in Latin America.