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"Europe is returning to Latin America," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sumptuously announced before the EU-CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit in Brussels on July 17-18. But something did not go well as planned.

Of course, Latin American countries welcomed the European attention, but expressed concerns over the original agenda of the summit. They believe it has been developed with European interests in mind, rather than addressing the serious problems such as poverty and inequality existing in the South American continent.

"There’s something rather naive and arrogant about saying ‘We will pay you attention now because we’ve suddenly discovered we need friends and want to project power,'" a senior South American diplomat expressed the participants' shared concerns.

Obviously, the participants of the summit were divided in their priorities. For the guests, the number one priority was the four hundred years of European colonial domination, economic exploitation and slavery. For the hosts, it was Russia's war with Ukraine in the first place.

"We need our close friends to be on our side in these uncertain times," Ursula von der Leyen said. "We hope that the final declaration will address the historical legacy of indigenous genocide, the enslavement of Africans and reparations," CELAC President and Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves responded.

EU leaders have failed to convince their Latin American and Caribbean counterparts to strongly condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

During the weeks-long wrangling over the final communiqué (debates began long before the summit), its drafts varied from condemning Russia's war "in the strongest possible terms" to a simple expression of "concern".

The final version reduced from 16 to 9 pages expresses "deep concern" about the ongoing war against Ukraine. At the same time, EU representatives underlined that the phrase "against Ukraine" instead of "in Ukraine" was a diplomatic victory that defines Russia as an aggressor without naming it directly.

Thanks to this diplomatic trick it was possible to avoid a scenario, when the summit could have ended without any statement at all. Yet Nicaragua was undeterred and the only country which did not sign the document.

While European leaders tried to hide their disappointment, they realised it was the best they could achieve. "The EU must recognise its own past mistakes," said outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He admitted that in the past the EU "often did not pick up the phone when Asian, African or Latin American countries called", so they are right to express their outrage.

Initially, Ralph Gonsalves pushed hard for stricter terms on reparations for slavery, including "genocide of indigenous peoples". Then he recognised that not everyone in the EU was a colonial power and the summit might not be the right forum for such discussions.

In the end, CELAC also compromised, agreeing that the text of the communiqué should include the expressions of deep regret over "the inexplicable suffering inflicted on millions of men, women and children as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade".

New challenges

The EU and CELAC have been strategic partners since the first summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. The last full-fledged summit was held in Brussels in June 2015.

In addition to the strategic partnership with CELAC, the EU has established individual strategic partnerships with Brazil and Mexico, as well as political and economic co-operation agreements with 27 of the 33 CELAC countries, the most recent one signed... 10 years ago.

Since the last summit, the global political and economic landscape has changed dramatically. New geopolitical circumstances and challenges affect the EU-CELAC relations as well: Russia's war against Ukraine, fight against climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of China's global ambitions.

This has significantly disrupted the chain of global economic ties, showing how dangerous it is for the EU to depend on one country for the supply of essential goods. It is possible to get rid of dependence on Russian energy resources, but the issue with the Chinese is more complicated. For example, the EU receives 97% of lithium from China, which means that virtually the entire electronics industry is completely dependent on Chinese supplies.

Meanwhile, Latin America also has rich lithium reserves, including in Argentina (24%), Bolivia (15%), Chile and Peru (14% each), i.e., about two-thirds of the world's proven lithium reserves.

Dependence on external markets

Geographically, Latin America and the Caribbean are far from the epicentre of European military conflicts. Consequently, the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation does not pose a major threat to their regional traditional security.

Moreover, CELAC is made up of developing countries with limited domestic markets and depending on external markets. While Latin America's economic development is inseparable from US and EU support, the region is also dependent on Russian goods and Chinese money.

For example, more than 80% of Nicaragua's grain comes from Russia. Brazil is the world's leading meat exporter and has the world's largest cattle herd (about 224 million). The main buyer is China, which accounted for about two-thirds of Brazil's beef exports in 2022. Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez promised Vladimir Putin last year that his country would be "a door for Russia to enter Latin America more decisively". He also signed a five-year co-operation plan on agriculture with Xi Jinping, which means more than $23.7b of Chinese investment.

China's influence in Latin America is growing rapidly. China has already overtaken the EU and is the region's second largest trading partner after the US. Latin American trade with China has grown from $12b in 2000 to $445b in 2021. By comparison, total trade in goods and services between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022 was $408b.

In 2000-2020, China increased investment in the region 26 times. It is now the most important, or second most important, trading partner in many Latin American countries, replacing the US and the EU. Of the 33 Latin American countries, 21 are participating in the Chinese initiative often referred to as the New Silk Road.

Reboot

The EU seems concerned about China's growing economic power in one of the world's largest commodity-exporting regions. Therefore, it is trying to secure supplies of crucial minerals from the region. During the summit in Brussels, the EU tried to revitalise the relations with Latin America, albeit rather unsuccessfully.

It is true that the parties signed all sorts of memoranda, statements of intent, some agreements and so on during the summit. The European Investment Bank provided $600m of loans to Brazil and Chile, while the EU pledged to invest more than €45b in the Latin American economy as part of the EU's Global Gateway strategy designed to counterbalance China's Silk Road. But all these attempts lag far behind the pace of Chinese penetration in Latin America.

The agreement between the EU and the South American bloc Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) to create one of the world's largest free trade areas is still under question. In 2019, after almost 20 years of negotiations, the parties agreed on a draft document, but it has never passed the ratification stage in the parliaments of member states.

The initiative has been obstructed either by Latin American countries, particularly small and medium-sized businesses in Argentina, and Brazil angered by European demands to include binding rules against Amazon deforestation, or by European farmers and agricultural unions who claim the EU has opened a "Pandora's box of double standards in agriculture" and is "exposing European farmers to unfair competition."

In March 2023, as if deliberately, the EU added fuel by proposing a seemingly updated agreement with Mercosur. But again, it included mandatory restrictions on deforestation, which angered Brazil and Argentina.

So it seems it is impossible to reset the relations so far. Yet, most of the agreements concluded during the summit concerned co-operation in justice and security, the fight against organised crime, corruption and money laundering, the production of vaccines, medicines and the exchange of medical technology.

"It took five centuries for relations between Europe and Latin America to go beyond resource extraction," Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez joked.

The next meeting is scheduled for 2025 in Colombia. Both sides promised to prepare for it better.