Czech Business Today

EU – Latin America cooperation started during the first bi-regional Summit in Rio de Janeiro already in 1999. Since then, bi-regional summits are held once per 2 years. Next summit will be held on 10th–11th June 2015 in Brussels. These two regions have a common history, values, culture and economy. 

Apart from that, the EU is one of the most important partners and the biggest investor (32 billion EUR per year) in Latin American countries. 26 out of 32 Latin American countries already profit from preferential agreements with the EU. Egmont Institute in cooperation with IRELAC hosted a preparatory seminar for the CELAC – EU Summit of Heads of States and Governments on 14th April 2015. Participants of the seminar were discussing future cooperation and topics that should be raised during the upcoming summit. Almost all the participants appreciated good relations and progress in the cooperation. Exchange of experience is perceived as the best way to address new challenges as sustainable growth or climate change and the upcoming summit is a great possibility to strengthen the cooperation even more. However, a new approach in cooperation should be taken. Cooperation should be held on many different platforms as summits, seminars, bilateral dialogues, sectoral dialogues and conferences. Also, private sector should be more involved in discussions and negotiations. 

Not all the stakeholders are satisfied with the level of progress in mutual relations. According to Arnaldo Abruzzini, Secretary General of EUROCHAMBRES, the progress in cooperation is slow and insufficient. From the business point of view, the EU is concentrating too much on cooperation with partners in Asia while not giving the same amount of attention to Latin America. He pointed out that there are huge opportunities for investments and development in that region and proposed better promotion of the EU in Latin American countries and creation of better connections between the European and Latin American business community. The first chance to address some of these issues will be on the upcoming summit in June. 

Jiri Hansl, Director of International affairs at the Czech Chamber of Commerce, is participating at the June summit and deems that the relationship with Latin America should reflect more the EU point of view rather than weaken it. He says: “Based on our previous experience and feedback from Czech business community the biggest accent should be put on a business support in form of B2B meetings and other company contact events as being the most efficient instrument for creating business contacts and transferring each other’s approach to business cooperation”.