Team Europe to pump €45B into partnership with Latin America, Caribbean
Published:Tuesday | July 18, 2023 | 12:08 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Team Europe has made a commitment to strengthen its partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as declared by the president of the European Commission. The pledge amounts to over €45 billion of high-quality European investment to the LAC region that will last until 2027.
The European Commission’s Team Europe consists of the European Union (EU), the EU member states – including their implementing agencies and public development banks – as well as the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
This commitment will be facilitated through the EU-LAC Global Gateway Investment Agenda (GGIA), which is based on the following pillars: a fair green transition, an inclusive digital transformation, human development, and health resilience and vaccines.
Ursula von der Leyen made the disclosure prior to yesterday’s official start of talks between the heads of states from LAC who gathered in Brussels, Belgium, to attend the EU – LAC Business Roundtable and the EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit, which concludes today.
The event marked the first time since 2015 that the leaders of both continents have gathered. Its purpose was to give high-level governmental and corporate figures of the region an opportunity to speak on sectors that they would need assistance in developing.
The GGIA includes a list of 135 projects already in the pipeline to make the fair green and digital transition a reality on both sides of the Atlantic and has been composed in close cooperation with the Spanish presidency and is the basis for further dialogues with the Latin American and Caribbean partners.
Some examples of projects include the EU working with LAC partners on critical raw materials such as lithium in the region of Argentina and Chile as well as with the critical raw materials club to strengthen sustainable supply chains. The EU will also collaborate with the Brazilian government and EU private sector to expand telecoms networks in the Amazon region. In Jamaica, the EU will work with the Government to deploy 5G to reach island-wide broadband access.
During her remarks, the president said the summit’s opening signalled a new chapter in the decades-long friendship between the European Commission and the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe need each other more than ever before,” she said, highlighting the effects on economies following the COVID-19 pandemic and the current implications because of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine causing the world we live in to be “more competitive, [and] more conflictual than ever before”.
RESILIENT TO EXTERNAL SHOCK
She stated that for the two continents to ensure that their economies are resilient to external shocks, they needed partners they could trust and rely on – naming Europe as one of those partner.
“We want to engage with investors and trade with countries who share common principles and common values and who prove reliable in the short term but also in the long term,” she said, adding that Europe aspired to be “the partner of choice” to the LAC.
Von der Leyen further explained that there was mutual interest in seeing Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe unleash their full potential.
“We do not just want to trade together, but we want to thrive together. For all these reasons, we have decided to step up our cooperation,” she further assured.
For his part, Ilan Goldfajn, president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), stated that a strategic alliance between LAC and Europe would be beneficial to both regions as it could result in cleaner energy use, quicker transitions to a greener economy, the preservation of biodiversity, and a greater emphasis on social equality.
“This is a time of aligning priorities,” he said, noting that the IDB’s objectives were to ensure that they addressed social concerns including poverty, inequality, food security, education, health, and infrastructure, among others.
“This is all part of a broader vision for the region. We have to reposition Latin America as part of the solution to its own challenges but also global challenges,” he said.
In order to combat inequality and advance inclusive and equitable societies, the commission also recently announced a €60-million inclusive societies project that will benefit the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.