Especially since there was enough preparation time, says Hahn. “Europe in particular thinks this is a real shame,” he explains. “Brussels is also very humble and caring towards Latin America in this sense.” According to Hahn, this also emerges from the speeches by President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, President Charles Michel of the European Council, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. “Rutte even thought that in recent years Europe had taken an arrogant attitude towards Latin America.”
“Rutte even thought that Europe had taken an arrogant attitude towards Latin America in recent years”
And that humble attitude is paying off, Hahn thinks. He says small successes are being carefully achieved at the two-day summit. For example, numerous trade agreements have been concluded with countries such as Chile, Argentina and Uruguay in the field of sustainability and digitalisation. “But the latter two are part of Mercosur, which was founded in 2019 as a trading bloc from Latin America, with Brazil as the main player,” Hahn continues. “It had already been agreed that the EU would do business with Mercosur, but that hasn’t materialized in the past four years.”
There would therefore also be an offer from Brussels in Latin America, but there has not yet been an official response. “And that was not in line with the expectations of this summit.”
bottlenecks
Before the final statement is released, Hahn thinks countries need to address major bottlenecks first. They are not so much cheap, but rather in the area of Russia-Ukraine and the past of slavery. “The king apologized for the Dutch history of slavery, and we are quite ahead of Europe in this,” says Hahn. “Countries like Portugal and the UK are not coming yet.”
This is why the president of Suriname told De Telegraaf today that more money must arrive in addition to the 200 million promised for reparations. “But other countries are not that far away yet, so a joint statement will be difficult.”
Ukraine
The same goes for the Ukraine issue. Brussels would like a joint statement and joint condemnation of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “But collectively Brussels means nearly sixty countries and, according to Politico, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela received a call from Moscow.”
But precisely because Brussels wants it so badly and presents itself as a geopolitical player, Hahn thinks all countries will stand their ground. “That’s the problem now.”