Ramón Jáuregui
President of the Euroamerica Foundation
“…and now that we must unfurl our sails
and catch the winds of destiny
wherever they take the ship.”
– Edgar Lee Masters
No one denies the success of last July’s EU-CELAC Summit. Because it was held after eight years of suspension, because both attendances and absences were very well compensated and because the resolutions adopted gave the impression that in Latin America and Europe the will to strengthen this strategic alliance that we forged more than twenty years ago was reborn.
But we all also agree that the summit was only a beginning, a new start for an Alliance that, in recent times, we had cooled or devalued. The agreements reached are only a port of departure, but there is still navigation and the culmination of a journey that will certainly not be easy. Let us see why.
One of the commitments undertaken is to recover the political dialogue between the two regions on the major issues of the international agenda and to bring positions closer together on the board on the events that cross our geopolitical reality day after day. We are at the end of 2023, almost six months have passed since the Summit and we are far from making progress on this commitment.
It is good that the Foreign Ministers meet annually and, of course, it is even better that there is a commitment to hold the next Summit in 2025, foreseeably in Colombia, because all this gives institutional continuity to this commitment to resume our political dialogue. But it seems much more complex to put into practice the creation of a permanent dialogue body to maintain the dialogue systematically and in a sufficiently representative manner.
I begin by attributing the first responsibility to Europe. I am among those who believe that Europe must listen more and better to Latin America and the Caribbean, that we must know and understand that many of its interests do not strictly coincide with ours, despite our basic convergence of values, principles and aspirations in the international order. Europe must offer Latin American countries the strength of common action at the tables of global governance, the joint defense of very important positions for the two regions: climate change, international financing, justice and fiscal transparency, international trade, etc. But these common positions must always be the result of a mutual attitude of respect, knowledge, understanding and consensus. But, on the other hand, are Latin America and the Caribbean ready for this common platform, do they want to join forces on the issues on which we agree, and how can we do so?
On the part of the European Union, the External Service (EEAS) is unique and represents the 27 member states of the Union. But who represents Latin America and the Caribbean and how? Moreover, are all Latin American countries interested in this common dialogue body? I ask these questions provocatively because I am aware of the difficulties for the gestation of this body by a pro-tempore presidency of CELAC without sufficient capacity for action and because I know the coldness with which some of the large Latin American countries are facing this objective.
I therefore conclude by saying that the political dialogue that sustains our Alliance requires the establishment of a permanent body to maintain contact, to make our dialogue fluid, to build new consensus between the two regions, to make us stronger, more influential, less dependent and more autonomous in a dangerously polarized and adverse international scenario. But it is urgent to establish it.
The second major agreement stemmed from the Business Round Table, held on the morning of July 17, in the presence of Mrs. Von der Leyen, President Lula and President Sanchez, and its continuation at the meeting of EU and CELAC economic ministers held in Santiago de Compostela on September 15. It is the launch of a Global Gateway Program agenda, endowed with forty-five billion euros to stimulate European investments in Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years and is based on a list (indicative and evolving) of investment projects, country by country, in three main areas: digital transformation, the fight against climate change and investments to meet the needs of social inclusion and basic services.
But although the agenda is a great work of approximation to the investment needs in the region and has been elaborated “bottom-up”, in agreement with many of the local and regional authorities, we are only facing a list of projects and a promise of financial support. Much remains to be done for its implementation.
First of all, the European business community needs to be made aware of and committed to the initiative. The level of knowledge of this initiative is still very basic and important business alliances will also be necessary to offer concrete investment proposals and, if necessary, to win the international tenders that may arise.
We also need to know the specific framework of financial aid available in Europe to promote these projects and investments. Let us not forget that we are talking about part of the funds coming from cooperation and this poses a delicate level of analysis because cooperation agencies and organizations look with reasonable suspicion at the use of these funds for economic initiatives, which in most cases generate development or directly resolve social, health or educational needs, but which in many other cases may have a more indirect relationship with the causes of cooperation.
The participation of multilateral development banks will of course increase the efficiency of these investments, but it will be necessary for European and Latin American states to increase their institutional and financial participation in them to make possible a greater volume of financing for these projects. Something similar must be said of the European Investment Bank, whose rate of investment in Latin America is, unfortunately, still very poor in relation to its financial action in other continents, especially Africa.
Finally, it will be necessary for Latin American governments to pilot and manage the implementation of these projects. This will require a high degree of coordination with local and regional authorities and, of course, the creation of public-private alliances with the awarded companies with a serious and broad commitment to ensure that these investments generate technology and added value for the country, overcoming the old and odious extractivist conception of some investments in previous times. In short, it is a matter of European companies assuming commitments to the development of the countries in which they operate and thus transferring the best social, labor and environmental conditions for workers and for the country.
It is important to highlight that in the digital and energy fields, Latin America has enormous possibilities and the coincidences or convergences with European economic interests and strategic needs can be very important. In turn, the European regulatory model in all these areas would achieve a broader and more powerful capacity of influence.
In short, it is a matter of bringing together and coordinating many actors in the financial, economic and business spheres, but also in the political sphere with the corresponding institutions, to carry out this task for the economic and social development of Latin America. The success of the ambitious Global Gateway plan will therefore depend on whether we are able to put a whole range of actors to work, from Latin American governments to European companies, including the international financial system, so that the ecological and social digital development of Latin America in the coming years will take place in terms of cooperation and mutual benefit for our two regions and thus strengthen our strategic alliance.
© Originally published in Aquí Europa / All rights reserved
