The first important result of Cumbre Ue Celac 2023 was the fact that it took place after eight years. Bringing the leaders of sixty countries together to reflect on a common agenda and important dossiers such as climate change or a massive investment and trade plan is a political fact of paramount importance. In particular, a 45 billion euro plan up to 2027 as a series of agreements on energy cooperation, raw materials and digital and ecological change.
The summit alludes to this, at least in the eyes of several Latin American heads of state and government, to a new global political order in which Europe should once again play an autonomous and independent role. A summit at which the heads of state and government of important countries of the subcontinent such as Brazil, Argentina and Mexico played a central and mediating role towards the 27 European countries.
President Lula, in particular, had a pivotal role because of the strength of his country and personal charisma. He has sought negotiations on everything while reaffirming his position on the ongoing war against Ukraine, “all death, destruction and starvation.” War was the stone guest of the summit, despite the words of Argentine President Alberto Fernandez: “This was not a summit on Ukraine.” In the end, an agreement was reached, a compromise where even the commas were smoothed out: “We express deep concern at the ongoing war against Ukraine, which continues to cause immense human suffering and exacerbates and constrains existing vulnerabilities in the global economy. Growth, rising inflation, disrupted supply chains, rising energy and food insecurity and rising risks to financial stability.”
A signed agreement from all but Nicaragua. In other words, a diplomatic success and the possibility of cooperation, although a right wind is blowing in Europe, which is also determined by the war agenda, while in Latin America the progressive wave is slowly reconquering all countries. The next stage is the elections in Ecuador, in which the left is strongly suspected of being victorious.
The underlying issue of progressive Latin American governments is double standards, which Europeans appear to apply at will. Double standards in judging situations of military occupation and violation of people’s self-determination. They find it difficult to understand the difference in assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the British occupation of Argentina’s Malvinas, or the different yardstick for Israel’s systematic land occupation of the West Bank. Double standards in breaches of the rule of law and violations of fundamental human rights, as well as freedom of the press and the autonomy of the judiciary.
open questions within the borders of the Union, with the cases of Poland and Hungary, and outside; Problems in the relations that the Union has with countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Tunisia, which however do not arouse the same outrage in the western press that arises from pointing the finger at a Latin American country.
The summit was also an opportunity to reinvigorate forms of cooperation and encounters between the social and political movements of the two regions. A presence and enthusiasm not seen since the days of the Porto Alegre Social Forums. The Cumbre de lo s pueblos, organized by the Left with the support of some Socialist and Green MEPs, responded to this urgency: to resume the thread of a common discourse. Lots of people, panels, performances, music; The presence of Don Mattia from Mediterranea, who rescued people, was greatly appreciated in the panel on migratory flows.
They did the rest the leaders of Bolivia, Colombia and Cuba, who have invested heavily in dealing with the movements. Presidents Arce, Petro and Diaz Canel made key contributions to the discussion, as did the leader of the French left, Mélenchon. Real rallies, but also deeper reflections on the need to transform the development model. President Petro has notably insisted that the radical fight against climate change is a litmus test of the irreformability of globalized capitalism, which eats everything, men, women, the ecosystem.
Two intense days, those of the Cumbre de los pueblos, that leave us with an ambitious work agenda: to search for a peace negotiation plan and to revitalize the grounds for a new internationalism, capable of moving within the profoundly changed multipolar geopolitics Frame.
* S&D MEP