President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed that he will attend a summit of heads of state and government from the European Union and Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States (CELAC). The summit will be held in Brussels on July 17 and 18.
The CELAC includes all 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, overlapping with their regional grouping in the United Nations.
According to the EU’s website, its engagement with the CELAC “is part of a flexible approach to its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, combining different levels of relations — regional, sub-regional and bilateral — which are complementary and mutually reinforcing.”
The last EU-CELAC summit at the head of government level was held in 2015. More recent meetings have been at the ministerial level.
Brazil’s presidential office said in a statement that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1, reiterated the invitation to Lula during a phone call. The two leaders also discussed the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur, a bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
Brazilian and European leaders see the Spanish presidency as an opportunity to move the deal forward. An agreement on the deal was reached in 2019, but no country has signed it to date — with countries such as France and Ireland, home to strong agricultural lobbies, acting as hurdles to ratification.
Lula recently called a side letter of additional environmental commitments the EU wants from Mercosur countries “unacceptable.” He also opposes an already-negotiated provision that would allow European countries to participate in public tenders in Mercosur countries, saying it would eliminate “one of the few instruments of industrial policy that we have left.”
Mercosur itself is wrestling with internal disagreements. Uruguay wants more freedom to sign trade deals with other countries, especially China — while Brazil and Argentina continue to resist.
The EU has yet to release a detailed program for the summit. It is to include a business forum, where leaders are set to announce new European investments in Latin America.
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