2023-07-15 23:29:22
The European Union (EU) hopes that the summit in Brussels with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) on Monday and Tuesday will allow relations between the two regions to be relaunched, but the European bloc has “thorny” ties with Nicaragua and Venezuela that complicate the dialogue.
The leaders plan to discuss issues such as trade relations, a reform in the composition of the international financial system, climate change and the energy and digital transitions. In addition, the European negotiators seek to mention the war in Ukraine. The leaders of both blocks meet for the first time since 2015.
“The summit is a reunion to reconsider all issues –political, economic, cooperation– between our societies. The main theme is that, in a world that is becoming much more unstable, the two continents share a vision of which world we want to build: democratic, open, sustainable and fair”, said the ambassador of the European Union in Colombia, Gilles Bertrand.
The populations that live under the umbrella of the European Union and Celac involve almost a third of the world’s countries and nearly 60 heads of state or government whose delegations are traveling to Brussels, where the event will take place.
Diplomats are especially interested in addressing green investments, in clean energy, circular economy and green business, connecting investments and companies from both sides of the ocean to find sustainable solutions.
“Colombia and the European Union are working on green hydrogen and green bonds, they are points in which we have strengthened cooperation to accelerate the decarbonization of the Colombian economy and the world economy,” stressed Ambassador Bertrand.
Petro’s agenda at the summit in Brussels
The president, Gustavo Petro, is one of the leaders who has already landed in Brussels for the Celac summit in which he plans to put Total Peace, clean energy, debt swap and the fight against poverty on the table for discussion.
This event is especially important for Colombia because during the hearings the designation of Colombia to exercise the Pro Tempore Presidency of Celac will be made official. Likewise, the Casa de Nariño confirmed that the election of our country as the venue for the IV EU-CELAC Summit in 2025 will also be ratified.
Discrepancies at the EU summit with Celac
“The EU is facing a very diverse set of countries with different ambitions and political sensibilities. And in some cases it maintains limited and thorny relations, such as with Nicaragua and Venezuela,” Christopher Sabatini, a Chatham House researcher, told AFP.
With Nicaragua, the EU has a tense relationship marked by the sanctions imposed on several senior officials, including the wife of President Daniel Ortega, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is prohibited from entering European territory. In this context, the ties have been characterized by a string of diplomatic crises.
Regarding Venezuela, the EU defends a “peaceful and democratic solution, led by Venezuela, to put an end to the protracted political crisis” and affirms that this implies that the next presidential elections in 2024 must be “credible, transparent and inclusive”.
The head of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, ruled out on Thursday that the EU send an electoral mission for the 2024 elections. “They do not return, because they are rude, because they are colonialists,” Rodríguez warned.
The European bloc expressed its “concern” about the disqualification of the opposition pre-candidate María Corina Machado, and suggested reviewing the role of the Comptroller General in the case. The EU sent an observation mission to Venezuela at the end of 2021 for the regional and municipal elections, the first since 2006, and highlighted progress, but also criticized “the arbitrary disqualification of candidates.”
Cuba: the other factor of tension at the summit
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized on Monday “the lack of transparency and the manipulative conduct of the European Union in the preparation of the Summit,” which “put the success of the meeting at serious risk.”
“Those who try to impose a biased and Europeanist vision on the bi-regional relationship will have no chance of success in Brussels,” Rodríguez warned. Venezuela supported Cuba’s criticism of “the lack of transparency and the manipulative conduct” of the bloc of 27.
The Cuban foreign minister affirmed that “the reality is that, beyond speeches and declarations, progress has not been made in bi-regional ties, even in the last period, there has been a regression.”
The European Parliament asked the EU this week to adopt sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations in Cuba, citing the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, in a resolution. Despite this tension, the issue of Cuba could be one of the opportunities for consensus at the summit, Sabatini said.
“Cuba is in the midst of this humanitarian crisis due, in part, to the US embargo, the consequences of the covid and, of course, the failures of the government’s economic policy,” said the expert.
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