On Wednesday and Thursday the 33 leaders of the "Community of Latin American and Caribbean States" (CELAC) met for talks with the heads of state and government of EU member states in Brussels.

They adopted the Brussels declaration entitled "Shaping our common future: working together for prosperous cohesive and sustainable societies for our citizens" and an action plan. In a separate political declaration the ministers of foreign affairs of the two regions are mandated to submit proposals for the future of EU-CELAC relations by 2016.

Interest in good relations

On the Latin American side too there is a high level of interest in maintaining good relations with Europe, said the Chancellor on Thursday. She described the summit meeting as "interesting and exciting". This was reflected in many discussions.

She finds it "very encouraging" that Europe is able to play an important role in Latin America. "It is a region with which we share common values and its economy is developing strongly," underscored Angela Merkel.

Climate, sustainability, trade

Before the first working session on Wednesday the Chancellor announced, "We will be discussing the preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of the year, as well as "the sustainable development goals we aim to adopt at the UN summit in September". These are very important for many Latin Americans.

The third topic of the EU-CELAC summit, said Angela Merkel, was economic development. "Trade between Europe and Latin America too ought to be increased," she underscored, and pointed to China’s efforts to develop trade with Latin America. The EU is the second largest trading partner of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

Europe and the Latin American/Caribbean region have enjoyed close cultural, political and economic links for several hundred years. Since 1999 the heads of state and government of the two regions have met at roughly two-yearly intervals. In 2010 the states of Latin America and the Caribbean founded CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). It has 33 member states, and thus embraces every state on the American continent and in the Caribbean with the exception of the USA and Canada. Together these states are home to more than 600 million people.

In 2013 the first EU-CELAC summit meeting was held in Santiago de Chile. These summits provide a forum to discuss topical political and economic issues. The meeting in Brussels on 10 and 11 June 2015 was the second summit in this form. The summit was co-chaired by Donald Tusk, President of the European Council and Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.