The Diplomat
Spain’s momentum and the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the EU represent an opportunity to strengthen relations between the European Union and Latin America, based on the principles of strategic autonomy and democratic values, in order to face the challenges of the 21st century. However, it remains to be seen what the course of this momentum will be when the Spanish semester is over and when the Latin Americanist orientation collides with the interests of other European countries, hence the need to consolidate commitments that go beyond the EU Summit and the Presidency itself.
These are some of the conclusions of the Report Latin America and Europe: beyond the summit, prepared by the Alternativas Foundation and the Carolina Foundation and presented last Thursday at the headquarters of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB). The report analyzes the reality of the countries that make up the Strategic Association between the EU and CELAC and pays special attention to the Summit that both blocs will hold next July in Brussels in the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the EU.
According to the first chapter of the report, entitled Latin America and the European Union and written by José Antonio Sanahuja, director of the Carolina Foundation, the raising of the level of EU-CELAC relations and the beginning of a new framework of cooperation between the two regions on an agenda of common interest “seems beyond any doubt, especially from the European side” and opens “opportunities for the global positioning of both regions in a particularly convulsive situation and of struggle between powers, to face with greater and better resources the global and common challenges that both regions face”.
For that reason, the fact that “the bi-regional political dialogue between the EU and CELAC has been interrupted and on hold since 2015 is worrying and, of course, quite anomalous.” In these eight years, cooperation actions have been maintained and trade negotiations have continued, but since then it has not been possible to hold a meeting of heads of state and government, after the summit planned for 2017 was suspended and in 2020, only a virtual ministerial conference could be held because of the pandemic. For the same reason, what should have been a bi-regional summit in 2021, “in the end was reduced to a modest virtual meeting of presidencies pro tempore of regional bodies in December of that year”.
“The EU-Latin America and Caribbean relationship is one of those with the richest acquis in terms of bi-regional cooperation, but it has been stagnant since 2015,” lamented Sanahuja during the presentation ceremony of the report, which was also attended by Andrés Allamand, Ibero-American Secretary General (SEGIB); Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Mexico’s ambassador to Chile; Vicente Palacio, director of Foreign Policy at Alternativas Foundation; Érika Rodríguez, coordinator and co-author of the Report; and Lorena Ruano, visiting researcher at Carolina Foundation and co-author of the Report.
“Both regions,” the study continues. “are aware that between 2022 and 2023 a window of opportunity has opened up, perhaps unique”, to relaunch bi-regional relations, since, on the one hand, the successive pro tempore presidencies of Mexico and Argentina have contributed to recovering the role of CELAC, and, on the other, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has reversed the decision of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, to withdraw his country from CELAC “to avoid coinciding with the governments of Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua”, which “means the full reestablishment of this regional group”.
The Spanish Presidency
On the other hand, the report continues, the need to relaunch bi-regional relations had already been raised in the European institutions, “with the impetus of some Member States, especially Spain, and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell”. This impulse had in view the second half of 2023, when Spain is to assume the Presidency of the Council of the EU, at a time when progress was expected in the negotiation of the modernization of the association agreements of Chile and Mexico. Regarding the EU-Mercosur Agreement, already the subject of an agreement “in principle” of June 2019, it was expected that after the departure of Jair Bolsonaro from the presidency of Brazil, the environmental objections that, from the EU, blocked its ratification would be attenuated.
This boost to relations, the report continues, “is closely associated with the political will of the Spanish government, which assumes the presidency of the Council of the EU and within which the opportunity that this circumstance opens for the strengthening of ties with the Latin American region is combined with the interest in positioning in the European sphere an issue with which Spain is strengthened”. Likewise, Josep Borrell’s position in favor of this impulse acts in the same direction. However, “it remains to be seen how far this impulse will go after the Spanish presidency and when the Latin Americanist orientation collides with the interests of other European countries”, so “it will be key to consolidate commitments after the Summit and the Spanish presidency”.
In any case, there is a risk, on the European side, of “associating the impulse and strengthening of relations with Latin America with very specific interests, both commercial and of global strategy, which also hardly reverse the reality of relations weakened by years of neglect and oblivion”. For this reason, the strengthening of cooperation “will require constant commitments and resources, which will contribute to redensify networks and exchanges with the region on multiple levels and to do so on the basis of an agenda of mutual interest, not only European, and in which the objectives of sustainable development and not only economic development take precedence”.
With regard to Latin America, there are significant risks, such as the fragmentation of the region, despite the recent boost given to some of the integration schemes that had been languishing, such as CELAC. This fragmentation complicates the dialogue with the region, which is marked by diverse interests and intensities that are difficult to manage. An example of this is the sidereal distance between the governments of Mexico and Brazil in terms of green policies.
