Strasbourg, 12/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is taking the success of Michelle Bachelet in the presidential elections in Chile as its cue to prepare a cooperation agenda focusing on social progress and innovation.
Visiting Chile for the inauguration ceremony on 11 March of the new Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, who was voted in for second term in this position in December 2013, following a first term from 2006 to 2010, Commissioner Antonio Tajani told Bachelet, in a meeting on 10 March, of “Europe's desire to further strengthen the EU's excellent relationship with Chile”. Tajani stressed “the EU's commitment to further improve our good economic ties”, in light of the fact that the EU is already Chile's second trade partner and its first source of foreign investment.
The vice-president of the Commission and the Chilean president also agreed to step up bilateral cooperation in the field of education, a priority of Bachelet's working programme. Tajani confirmed the EU's full readiness to cooperate and offered its experience and good practice. Tajani and Bachelet also agreed to hold a joint event for women entrepreneurs to reinforce cooperation in the field of industrial innovation. This event will be held in Chile in the coming months.
The EU and Chile will be reinforcing cooperation which was already consolidated with the signature, in 2011, between the two sides of a letter of intent on cooperation in the field of SMEs. Additionally, Tajani visited Santiago in 2013, with a delegation of European businesses, for a “growth mission”. EU-Chile cooperation for SMEs aims to encourage the promotion of business clusters and networks to stimulate the internationalisation of SMEs. In this context, the platforms European Cluster Collaboration Platform and Eurochile signed a protocol agreement in late 2013.
Brussels and Santiago also hope to consolidate their cooperation on peace and security. On Monday, Tajani and Bachelet agreed that the EU and Chile can work together in the framework of peace missions, such as the one launched ten years ago in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the early 2000s. With regard to this, they both stressed the importance of the bilateral agreement of 30 January to facilitate Chile's involvement in other peace missions. (EH)