On Monday and Tuesday, the summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLACS) was held, an event that is of enormous importance for both regions of the globe for multiple reasons. Why has this meeting between European and Latin American leaders been so important? What impacts would it bring and what would be the benefits?
The EU is a supranational organization that officially dates to 1993, with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. However, the European regional integration process goes even decades back. It began in 1944 with the customs, economic and security alliance between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, better known as Benelux; it continued with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community along with France, Germany and Italy in 1951; and it was reinforced with the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957.
On the other hand, the CLACS is an intergovernmental organization born in 2010, made up of Latin American and Caribbean countries. Its summits are held once a year in a venue different each year and with a new pro tempore presidency. They intend to improve regional integration and encourage collaboration in multiple areas between member states, such as the economic one.
Both the EU and the CLACS are relevant spaces for collaboration and the respective regional integration. However, they do not reduce their interaction with their member-states but direct their contact and relationship with external state and non-state actors. In this way, they can guarantee many more channels of communication, collaboration, support, etc. That has been precisely one of the reasons why the recent summit has been generated.
The meeting between the EU and the CLACS harbors many interests, not only the economic one, which is central in relations between countries and, in this case, state organizations. Of course, the intention is to encourage trading between the members of the European conglomerate of nations and Latin America. It is a relevant interaction in terms of its volume as we are talking about a relationship of more than one billion people, which represents an eighth of the current world population.
But in addition to the mutual commercial benefit, an agreement has been reached for the environmental, technological and connectivity cooperation between the EU and the CLACS. The consensus obtained will help Latin America in these parts that are key to the competitiveness of the countries and the safeguarding of the natural environment.
However, it also allows Brussels to advance in its great project of the Global Gateway, a clear way of competing with China and its Belt and Road Initiative, whose aim is to improve infrastructure, connectivity and transcontinental cooperation.
In the same way, it is important to point out another interest of the summit, which is politics. After the visit of the President of the European Commission to various Latin American countries a few weeks ago, the CLACS – except for Nicaragua’s reluctance – has now condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in a more consensual manner. It is a significant step forward for the West’s efforts to help Kiev defend itself and lessen Moscow’s support for continuing to wage what it calls its “special military operation”.
Undoubtedly, these multiple agreements will foster interaction between the EU and the CLACS and will bring them closer in these crucial times for international cooperation and collaboration within the framework of competition between the West and the growth of China. But despite this, the challenges remain. The integration of the European conglomerate is long-standing and maintains deep relation between the state policy of Brussels and the government policy of the member states, a different situation of the group of Latin American countries, which distinguishes the agreement of their summits and the decisions of each government. Therefore, a very high degree of commitment is required to acknowledge and strengthen the agreements and the interaction obtained in this meaningful summit.
