Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, 3 December, Javí Lopez (S&D, Spain), the Co-President of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat), and MEP Maria Manuel Marques Leitão (S&D, Portugal), raised the idea of relaunching the strategic partnership between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Lopez said that, in the light of current geostrategic tensions, the EU should use this new institutional cycle to forge new alliances with Latin America so that the two regions are able to bring their joint influence to bear at international level on issues such as the fight against climate change and “multilateralism”. He was hoping for agreement soon in the trade negotiations with Chile and Mexico.
Ratification of the trade agreement with Mercosur seems to be a real challenge, especially within the EU. “The problem is the EU, particularly France, Italy and Austria”, said Marques.
According to López, the political crises in a number of Latin American countries will be on the agenda of the next session of the Eurolat Assembly - which is being held in Panama on 12 and 13 December - as part of broader discussions on the importance of respect for the rule of law.
He observed that the “polarisation” of society seen in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela, and also at the regional level, had contributed to creating polarisation within the European Parliament as well.
The S&D group in the European Parliament is not opposed to specific cases of human rights and/or rule of law violations being identified, provided that this does not serve any political agendas. Lopez observed that the European Parliament managed to adopt a majority position on the situation in Bolivia (see EUROPE 12379/23), but that the political crisis in Chile was discussed without a resolution being adopted. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)