Relacione De Ue Con Lat

The EU’s Strategic Partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was founded at the first EU-LAC Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1999. This cooperation among countries whose population totals around one billion is built on a common cultural heritage and shared values.
The partnership has been further developed and refined at five summits so far: Madrid 2002, Guadalajara 2004,Vienna 2006, Lima 2008 and Madrid 2010. The summits serve as a forum for political dialogue on important global issues and as a catalyst for shaping concrete relations (through association or partnership agreements, direction of development assistance).
Sixth EU-LAC Summit in Madrid
The sixth EU-LAC Summit took place in Madrid on 18 May 2010 under the Spanish EU Presidency. The overarching theme forthe meeting between the Heads of State and Government was “Innovation and technology for sustainable development and social inclusion”. Other items on the agenda were the situation in Haiti, the economic and financial crisis and climate negotiations. The final summit declaration (the Madrid Declaration) was accompanied by the Madrid Action Plan which outlined the projects of the bi-regionalpartnership for the next years.
During the Summit the EU-LAC Foundation, which is to be based in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, was established.
The EU’s association negotiations with Central America were also concluded during the Summit. This association agreement will be the EU’s first with a region. The negotiations on comprehensive free trade agreements with Peru and Colombia were also completed,while the association negotiations with Mercosur were resumed. Moreover, the Summit saw the launch of the Latin American Investment Facility, through which 100 million euro are to be mobilized by financial institutions by 2013 in order to promote interconnectivity, regional integration and social cohesion.
A closely linked network at all levels
The bi-regional partnership is a tightly-wovennetwork of diverse relationships, activities and cooperation mechanisms. It encompasses the governmental level (summits every two years, meetings of foreign ministers in the EU-Rio Group in the years when summits are not held, regular meetings between senior officials) as well as civil society, parliaments and businesses. The wide spectrum of events that take place in addition to the summitsillustrates the broad-based cooperation between the two regions.
EU-LAC Fora
Germany is playing an active role in breathing new life into the EU-LAC framework. It has initiated a series of events directly relevant to these fields, joining with various partners to deliver them: an expert seminar on small arms in 2007, EU-LAC Fora on fiscal policy – March 2008 and May 2009 in Berlin and Montevideorespectively –, an EU-LAC Forum on corporate social responsibility held in Buenos Aires in October 2009 and one on energy policy at the Federal Foreign Office on 29/30 April 2010. The VIth EU-LAC Seminar on fiscal policy and climate change took place in Berlin on 10/11 November 2010.
The EU’s strategic orientation
On 30 September 2009 the Commission adopted its Communication “The European Union andLatin America: global players in partnership”, which included the following key recommendations:
• Strengthen and focus the objectives of the bi-regional dialogue
• Increase regional integration and interconnectivity
• Strengthen bilateral relations and pay more attention to differing circumstances
• Focus objectives of cooperation programmes and adapt them
The Latin American Investment Facility(LAIF) also outlined in the Communication was launched at the 2010 EU-LAC Summit in Madrid. This is a new instrument aimed at promoting interconnectivity, regional integration and social cohesion.
Economic relations

EU-Mercosur-summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1999, family photo 
© BPA / Stutterheim

The EU is LAC’s second-largest trading partner (after the United States), accounting for...