| III EU–CELAC Summit 2023 | |
|---|---|
 Leaders[a] of theEuropean Union and theCommunity of Latin American and Caribbean States on the first day of the summit | |
| Date | 17–18 July 2023 |
| Cities | Brussels,Belgium |
| Follows | 2nd EU–CELAC summit [es] |
| Website | https://eulacfoundation.org/en/iii-eu-celac-summit-2023 |
The third summit between theEuropean Union (EU) and theCommunity of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) took place inBrussels,Belgium, over two days, from17 July to18 July 2023.[1][2][3][4]
It took place whileSpain held the presidency of theCouncil of the European Union andRalph Gonsalves, the prime minister ofSaint Vincent and the Grenadines, held thepro tempore presidency of CELAC.[5][6][7] It was the first such summit in eight years;the previous summit [es] was held in 2015.[8][9]
The summit was seen as a way to revitalize the relationship between the two parties and possibly make progress on finalizinga trade agreement between the EU andMercosur, a South Americantrade bloc.[10][1][b] Shortly before the summit, European Commission presidentUrsula von der Leyen announced that the EU was planning to invest 45 billioneuros intoLatin America and theCaribbean, as part of the EU'sGlobal Gateway strategy.[6][1][9][c]
The participants had significant trouble coming to an agreement over what to include in a joint declaration of the summit: the EU parties wanted a strong condemnation of theRussian invasion of Ukraine, while some of the CELAC parties maintained strong relations withRussia and wished to avoid making such a statement.[5][1][13][12][4][14] In addition, many of the CELAC countries wanted to address the issue of payingreparations for slavery, an idea which received pushback from the EU countries, with Irish taoiseachLeo Varadkar pointing out that not every European country had colonies or partook inthe slave trade.[15][16][17][18]
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In the end, the summit managed to produce whatEl País described as a "lukewarm condemnation of the war" that made no mention of Russia, despite attempts byNicaragua to block such a condemnation.[19][3][20][21][d] In addition, although the final declaration did not commit to the payment of reparations, it stated that the parties "profoundly regret" the suffering that the slave trade had caused.[19][16][21] Furthermore, the parties agreed to hold summits every two years, with the next meeting scheduled to be held inColombia in 2025.[19][22]
Not much progress was made on the trade agreement; it was only briefly mentioned in the final declaration.[8][17] European diplomats were hoping for commitments addressing their concerns about the environment, after Brazilian former presidentJair Bolsonaro had allowed thedeforestation of the Amazon rainforest to reach a 15-year high.[5][22][13] Their CELAC counterparts demurred, stating thatenvironmentalism should not be used as apretext forprotectionism.[5][15] Some of the EU countries have also voiced concerns about the possible flooding of beef from countries such asArgentina andBrazil.[5][22]
Brazilian presidentLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who also held thepro tempore presidency of Mercosur during the summit, remarked that he had "rarely seen so much political and economic interest from the EU countries towards Latin America" and considered the summit "extremely successful".[23][14] European Council presidentCharles Michel said that he had left the summit "feeling that we had done our duty".[20]
British prime ministerRishi Sunak condemned the EU because the final declaration of the summit had used the term "Islas Malvinas" next to the term "Falkland Islands", which led a spokesperson for the EU to clarify that the union had not changed its position regarding the islands.[24][25]
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