At the CELAC-EU Summit, Europe and Latin America chart a common course for a fair partnership

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

At the CELAC-EU Summit in Santa Marta, Colombia, the European Union and 33 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) renewed their commitment to defending a peaceful global order, rooted in democracy, social justice, respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The leaders pledged to strengthen international cooperation and protect the UN-led global order from mounting pressure.

Discussions centred on practical cooperation to strengthen democracy and multilateralism, drive the green, digital, and social transitions, expand trade opportunities and step up joint action on security.

Delivering on shared priorities

The Summit concluded with a political declaration and a roadmap setting out concrete actions on trade, climate, energy, digital transformation, food security, health, education, research and culture.

Joint initiatives include:

• Shared vision for global governance: At the Summit, leaders agreed to further work together to reinvigorate multilateralism and to defend the principles of the UN Charter, to advance the implementation of the Pact for the Future and the UN80 reform initiative. They agreed to cooperate, among others, towards more effective international financial architecture, open, transparent, predictable, and equitable multilateral trading system within the framework of the WTO, ambitious climate action with full implementation of the Paris Agreement, implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They also agreed to consolidate the partnership to advance common priorities and strengthen multilateral action on human rights.

• Resilient, clean energy networks: €6.86 billion will fund 24 projects to build a cleaner, more efficient and better-connected regional power network, under the Global Gateway. This initiative brings together the Team Europe, committing €2.73 billion, the European Investment Bank (EIB), contributing €2 billion, EU development finance institutions, leading energy firms, and regional institutions including CELAC, the Latin American Energy Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF).

• Stronger networks and smarter tech: Anewly launched EU-LAC Supercomputing Network for AI links regional computing centres across both regions, with €15 million from the EU, Spain and Brazil. In parallel, the BELLA programme will expand through the EllaLink fibre-optic cable between Europe and Brazil, bringing high-speed connections also to Costa Rica and Guatemala by the end of 2025 and reaching Central America, Peru and the Caribbean in 2026. The EIB and the CAF will also leverage up to €864 million and provide CELAC countries with a regionally owned satellite, bringing digital access to remote areas, including the Amazon and Caribbean islands. 

• Reinforced disaster preparedness: The EU and Caribbean nations are launching Stormwatch, a new partnership using EU satellite data and supercomputing to strengthen disaster preparedness in the face of worsening extreme weather. The initiative will provide advanced forecasting tools to Caribbean meteorologists, backed by the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation program and Destination Earth digital modeling. A new Copernicus Competence Centre will be set up in Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology to enhance local climate monitoring and training. These are some of the tools contributing to implement the EU-LAC Memorandum on Disaster Risk Preparedness and Management. The devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa underscored the critical importance of working on preparedness and disaster resilience.

• Fair and mutually beneficial economic partnership: the EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement and the EU Mexico Modernised Global Agreement represent the way forward in our trade relations: ambitious, sustainable and profitable deals that can help both continents to grow and prosper. Negotiating new agreements, such as the EU-Ecuador Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement , will create new ways to further cement this partnership. More broadly, both regions, reiterating their shared commitment to rules-based, open trade, committed to work together to reform and modernise the World Trade Organization.

• Sustainable value chains: Through Global Gateway investments in Grenada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, the EU is supporting efforts to collect and transform 660,000 tonnes of sargassum seaweed into safe commercial products, creating regional value chains and new jobs.

• A unified front against organised crime: Organised crime and drug trafficking are a major threat to the security of citizens in the region as well as in Europe. A comprehensive approach combining prevention, enforcement, and cooperation has been endorsed by leaders of both regions, that agreed to stronger operational cooperation on citizen security through police, judicial, and border management coordination. The launch of an EU–LAC Alliance for Citizen Security promotes a much-needed whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to security, building on ongoing justice and law enforcement cooperation, enhancing cooperation in areas including the fight against drug trafficking, border management, maritime security, port security, cyber domains. The EU proposed the LAC partners to join efforts ensuring information-sharing among legitimate actors at sea, to prevent illicit activities, through an expanded programme on critical information sharing, CRIMARIO, that will now be available for the whole region. Together with countries in the region, the EU will continue to promote the rule of law and respect for international law.

• Strengthened care systems: the EU and LAC are launching a Bi-regional Pact on Care extends our cooperation to the area of social affairs. It creates a platform for regular and structured discussions between the EU and LAC on how to strengthen our care systems and programmes with a comprehensive approach, improving support for those in need while also enhancing the working conditions of professional care providers, while addressing the heavy burden of unpaid care on families and gender equality.

Background

EU and LAC share commitment to inclusive and effective multilateralism and a rules-based international order, grounded in international law and the principles of the UN Charter. In multilateral fora, they are among the world’s most closely aligned regions. Representing together almost one third of the membership of the UN, they have the leverage to make important contribution to deliver on global challenges.

The CELAC region remains also key economically. Trade exchanges in 2024 alone amounted to 416 billion euros, which represents a growth of over 56% since 2014. At the 2023 EU CELAC summit, both regions committed to further strengthen this relationship and to undertake efforts to finalise ambitious agreements such as the EU-Mercosur deal.

For More Information

• Joint Declaration of the CELAC-EU Summit 2025
• Opening speech by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas
• EU-CELAC Roadmap
• Audiovisual package
• Factsheet: EU – Latin America and the Caribbean
• Global Gateway and Latin America