On Monday 14 December, the Foreign Ministers of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean welcomed the joint initiative LAGREEN from Germany and the European Commission, to set up a green bonds fund to invest in climate-friendly projects in Latin America.
Bringing together public and private investment, the fund will be endowed with almost €450 million and implemented by the German development bank KfW. The Commission and the German authorities will assume responsibility for the first instalments relating to possible losses in the event of failure of the projects supported.
More information on LAGREEN: https://bit.ly/37jb7hm
In their joint declaration, the ministers stressed the importance of a post-Covid-19 economic recovery that promotes sustainable development, “aims at carbon neutrality in the second half of this century and complies with international commitments”. Highlighting the “strategic” importance of the free trade agreements between the EU and certain countries or regional groupings, they are convinced that their cooperation aimed at “establishing the right conditions for the entry into force of the EU-Mercosur Agreement “ will improve the latter’s potential to contribute to the shared overarching objective of sustainable development.
On Monday, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, raised the possibility of drawing up additional declarations to the EU/Mercosur agreement in order to overcome the reluctance of EU countries to ratify it, without reopening negotiations (see EUROPE 12622/19).
Bilateral summit. In the end, the Ministers affirmed their willingness to intensify the dialogue in order to prepare for holding a bi-regional summit, one of Mr Borrell’s priorities. The last EU/Latin America Summit took place in June 2015 in Brussels (see EUROPE 11333/1, 11332/11).
See the joint statement: https://bit.ly/3gO2j6l (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)