IV EU-Chile Summit — Joint Communiqué

The Fourth Euro­pean Union-Chile Sum­mit was held in Madrid (Spain) on 17 May 2010. The Euro­pean Union (EU) was rep­re­sent­ed by Mr Her­man Van Rompuy, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Coun­cil, Mr José Manuel Durão Bar­roso, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Pres­i­dent of the Gov­ern­ment of Spain and Pres­i­dent in turn of the Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union, Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zap­a­tero.

The Repub­lic of Chile was rep­re­sent­ed by the Pres­i­dent, Mr Sebastián Piñera Echenique.

1. This Sum­mit was the fourth insti­tu­tion­alised polit­i­cal dia­logue between Chile and the EU at the lev­el of Heads of State and Gov­ern­ment since the entry into force of the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment, and the first since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.

2. The meet­ing took place in a very pos­i­tive atmos­phere, reflect­ing the pio­neer­ing nature of the EU-Chile part­ner­ship and excel­lent rela­tions that exist across the board between Chile and the Euro­pean Union. The Sum­mit con­firmed the degree of matu­ri­ty and mutu­al con­fi­dence that has been achieved in the polit­i­cal dia­logue. This is high­light­ed by the sig­nif­i­cant extent to which the par­ties coin­cide on insti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ples and social val­ues, plac­ing par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on democ­ra­cy, the rule of law, good gov­er­nance, fun­da­men­tal free­doms and full respect for human rights as fun­da­men­tal pil­lars of the rela­tion­ship. The lead­ers also con­curred that the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment has great poten­tial to fur­ther enhance the rela­tion­ship that has yet to be ful­ly exploited. 

3. The EU and Chile agreed to coor­di­nate their work at inter­na­tion­al lev­el on the main glob­al top­ics by enhanc­ing bilat­er­al pol­i­cy exchanges on glob­al issues such as envi­ron­ment, cli­mate change, human secu­ri­ty, dis­ar­ma­ment, free trade, ener­gy, sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy and the for­ma­tion of human capital.

4. The Euro­pean Union took note of Chile´s readi­ness to accept the LAC pres­i­den­cy of the EU-LAC Dia­logue. Chile and the EU high­light­ed the rel­e­vance of the EULAC process for strength­en­ing bi-region­al dia­logue as well as address­ing the main glob­al challenges.

5. Both par­ties con­clud­ed that the entry into force of the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment and its imple­men­ta­tion in recent years have made a pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion to strength­en­ing their rela­tion­ship. They under­lined in par­tic­u­lar the intense and col­lab­o­ra­tive joint effort that had allowed the EU and Chile to draw up the road map and work pro­gramme for the Asso­ci­a­tion for Devel­op­ment and Inno­va­tion that was estab­lished dur­ing the 7th Asso­ci­a­tion Com­mit­tee. Both par­ties high­light­ed the impor­tant role of the Asso­ci­a­tion for Devel­op­ment and Inno­va­tion (ADI) in fos­ter­ing fur­ther inten­si­fi­ca­tion of con­sul­ta­tions, coop­er­a­tion and coor­di­na­tion at all lev­els with­in the frame­work of the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment. The par­ties agreed the ADI should con­tin­ue to focus on spe­cif­ic activ­i­ties to stim­u­late eco­nom­ic growth and social cohe­sion, ini­tial­ly in key areas — name­ly Edu­ca­tion, and Ener­gy, Envi­ron­ment & Cli­mate Change — with inno­va­tion as a cross-cut­ting theme.

6. Both par­ties wel­comed the sig­nif­i­cant progress in bilat­er­al trade, as well as the increased lev­el of invest­ment in goods and ser­vices, that had been achieved since the entry into force of the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment. Thus, bilat­er­al trade between Chile and the EU has dou­bled in the peri­od between 2003 and 2009, while EU invest­ment in Chile in the peri­od between 1974 and 2009 reached €21 bil­lion, account­ing for 38% of the total For­eign Invest­ment received by Chile dur­ing this peri­od. The par­ties con­sid­er that the full util­i­sa­tion of the trade oppor­tu­ni­ties offered by the Agree­ment remains an impor­tant objec­tive in the bilat­er­al rela­tion­ship, in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of the respec­tive arti­cles of the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment. The par­ties will make efforts, in the best pos­si­ble time scale, to devel­op the poten­tial of the Agree­ment as regards goods and ser­vices, explor­ing sce­nar­ios that make pos­si­ble a mutu­al­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry outcome.

7. The par­ties wel­comed the sig­na­ture of the frame­work agree­ment between Chile and the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank (EIB) which will enable the EIB to oper­ate in Chile. Chile under­took to make every effort to com­plete its process of rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the agree­ment. The par­ties con­curred on the impor­tant role that the EIB can play in sup­port­ing invest­ment projects in Chile, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the renew­able ener­gy sec­tor and in the medi­um- to long-term recon­struc­tion effort.

8. Both par­ties wel­comed the forth­com­ing cre­ation of the Latin Amer­i­ca Invest­ment Facil­i­ty (LAIF). The Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion con­firmed its readi­ness to fast-track Chilean requests to help with recon­struc­tion if so requested. 

9. Pres­i­dent Bar­roso and Pres­i­dent Piñera exchanged views on the state of imple­men­ta­tion of coop­er­a­tion pro­grammes in the frame­work of the Coun­try Strat­e­gy Paper 2007–2013 and of the Mid-Term Review of this coop­er­a­tion. The par­ties con­sid­ered that the impact of bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion to date has been pos­i­tive and wel­comed the con­fir­ma­tion of clear links between the coop­er­a­tion pri­or­i­ties and the Asso­ci­a­tion for Devel­op­ment and Inno­va­tion (ADI) by the Mid- Term Review. Both par­ties were con­fi­dent that the results of the forth­com­ing coop­er­a­tion peri­od (2011–13) — with a Euro­pean con­tri­bu­tion of €15.58 mil­lion and an equiv­a­lent Chilean con­tri­bu­tion, retain­ing the pri­ori­ti­sa­tion of Social Cohe­sion and Inno­va­tion and Com­pet­i­tive­ness – would be of equal or even bet­ter qual­i­ty. Both par­ties wel­comed the deci­sion to co-finance projects in the frame­work of the ADI, not­ing that the planned activ­i­ties were a tan­gi­ble demon­stra­tion of its rel­e­vance. Final­ly, both par­ties agreed to con­sid­er the recon­struc­tion pri­or­i­ties of Chile in the con­text of the cur­rent cooperation.

10. The Euro­pean Union con­grat­u­lat­ed Chile on its acces­sion to the Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Devel­op­ment and praised its active involve­ment in emerg­ing new coop­er­a­tion modal­i­ties such as “tri­an­gu­lar” or “south-south” coop­er­a­tion with oth­er coun­tries in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean. Both par­ties con­firmed their will to work togeth­er on this impor­tant issue.

11. Despite the fact that the results of Copen­hagen fell short of their expec­ta­tions, the par­ties con­curred that they rep­re­sent a step for­ward in the glob­al fight against cli­mate change and agreed to work togeth­er ahead of the COP 16 of the Unit­ed Nations Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change in Mex­i­co, towards a legal­ly bind­ing and glob­al­ly-reach­ing agree­ment aimed at reduc­ing and lim­it­ing green­house gas emis­sions to keep the increase in glob­al tem­per­a­ture below 2 degrees, tak­ing into account the prin­ci­ple of com­mon but dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed respon­si­bil­i­ties. Both par­ties expressed a shared inter­est in improv­ing ener­gy effi­cien­cy and in reduc­ing the inten­si­ty of green­house gas emis­sions in their respec­tive economies with a view to address­ing the eco­nom­ic, social and secu­ri­ty chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change. The par­ties also coin­cid­ed on the impor­tance of tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the impacts of cli­mate change in all rel­e­vant plan­ning and deci­sion-mak­ing in order to guide and effec­tive­ly imple­ment nation­al adap­ta­tion measures.

12. Both par­ties recog­nised the fun­da­men­tal impor­tance of bio­di­ver­si­ty for cli­mate change mit­i­ga­tion and adap­ta­tion, and for long-term human well-being, and agreed to step up efforts to fight bio­di­ver­si­ty loss, includ­ing by adopt­ing a new and more effec­tive glob­al strat­e­gy at COP10 of the Unit­ed Nations Con­ven­tion on Bio­di­ver­si­ty. The par­ties wel­comed the process agreed at the 2010 UNEP Gov­ern­ing Coun­cil to improve the sci­ence-pol­i­cy inter­face for bio­di­ver­si­ty and eco-sys­tem services. 

13. Both sides reviewed the main activ­i­ties car­ried out since the last bilat­er­al Sum­mit, includ­ing the third sec­toral dia­logue on employ­ment poli­cies (San­ti­a­go, 17–19 Novem­ber 2008), the sem­i­nar mark­ing the fifth anniver­sary of the entry into force of the Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment (San­ti­a­go, 28 Novem­ber 2008), the 4th meet­ing of the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee of the Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Agree­ment (Brus­sels, 24 April 2009), the Human Rights Dia­logue (San­ti­a­go, 21 April 2009) and the very pos­i­tive and con­struc­tive Fourth Asso­ci­a­tion Coun­cil (Prague, 14 May 2009) and the 7th Asso­ci­a­tion Com­mit­tee (Brus­sels, 15 Octo­ber 2009). The par­ties high­light­ed the excel­lent col­lab­o­ra­tion that had char­ac­terised the organ­i­sa­tion of these and many oth­er events that had tak­en place at tech­ni­cal lev­el in the pre­vi­ous two years, as well as the valu­able con­clu­sions reached on top­ics of mutu­al interest.

14. The par­ties recog­nised the impor­tance of sec­toral pol­i­cy dia­logues estab­lished in a flex­i­ble and prag­mat­ic man­ner in the fields of Ener­gy; Envi­ron­ment and Cli­mate Change; Small and Medi­um Enter­pris­es and Inno­va­tion; high­light­ing both the impor­tance of these top­ics and also the role that Chile can play in imple­ment­ing con­crete projects that can have a region­al impact in the fields in ques­tion. The par­ties also re-con­firmed their com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue the Sec­toral Dia­logue on Employ­ment Poli­cies, includ­ing by coor­di­nat­ing these mat­ters at inter­na­tion­al lev­el, notably in the con­text of the Inter­na­tion­al Labour Organ­i­sa­tion (ILO).

15. Both par­ties expressed their sat­is­fac­tion with the work under­tak­en by the EUChile Joint Par­lia­men­tary Com­mit­tee (JPC), as well as with the con­tri­bu­tion made by this par­lia­men­tary dia­logue to the strength­en­ing of rela­tions between the two sides. Both par­ties took note of the Dec­la­ra­tions made by the JPC.

16. The par­ties expressed their deter­mi­na­tion to coop­er­ate in address­ing the con­se­quences of the glob­al eco­nom­ic and finan­cial cri­sis, and to pre­vent the recur­rence of such a cri­sis, in line with the goals set by the G‑20. Both par­ties would con­tin­ue to apply macro­eco­nom­ic and finan­cial poli­cies designed to restore mar­ket con­fi­dence, sta­bilise world finan­cial mar­kets, and fos­ter bal­anced and sus­tained glob­al eco­nom­ic growth, while aim­ing to mit­i­gate the impact of the cri­sis on the most vul­ner­a­ble sec­tors of soci­ety and imple­ment time­ly and coor­di­nat­ed exit strate­gies for over­com­ing the cri­sis. Both par­ties stressed their com­mit­ment to reach an ambi­tious, bal­anced and com­pre­hen­sive out­come to the Doha Devel­op­ment Round of trade negotiations.

17. Chile reit­er­at­ed its inter­est in mak­ing progress towards an ambi­tious avi­a­tion agree­ment. In this respect, both Par­ties agreed to make their best efforts to fur­ther the process that would allow the start of nego­ti­a­tions in this field. 

18. The EU and Chile con­firmed their shared com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing the restora­tion of a secure and sta­ble envi­ron­ment in Haiti, in par­tic­u­lar in the postearthquake recov­ery, recon­struc­tion and sta­bil­i­ty efforts there. The EU applaud­ed Chile’s con­tin­ued engage­ment in Haiti even in the after­math of its own earth­quake and tsunami.

19. The Pres­i­dent of Chile thanked the Euro­pean Union for its speedy and com­pre­hen­sive response to the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake and tsuna­mi of 27 Feb­ru­ary, prais­ing the imme­di­ate deci­sion of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion to allo­cate €3 mil­lion in human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance as well as the gen­er­ous con­tri­bu­tions both finan­cial and in kind that had been made by EU Mem­ber States. The Euro­pean Union under­lined its readi­ness to deploy fur­ther resources in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Chile´s gov­ern­ment and cit­i­zens, work­ing in part­ner­ship to iden­ti­fy mech­a­nisms and modal­i­ties that per­mit the achieve­ment of effec­tive and effi­cient coop­er­a­tion for the recon­struc­tion of the affect­ed areas.

20. Chile and the EU are exposed to a range of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and have exten­sive expe­ri­ence in dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness, response and reha­bil­i­ta­tion. Not­ing this, the lead­ers instruct­ed their offi­cials speed­i­ly to explore the scope for estab­lish­ing a process of exchange of infor­ma­tion and expe­ri­ence between the EU and Chile in these fields, con­cur­ring that this process should also pro­mote bilat­er­al and, if rel­e­vant, tri­an­gu­lar coop­er­a­tion in the field of dis­as­ter preparedness.

21. Final­ly, under the insti­tu­tion­alised polit­i­cal dia­logue, both Par­ties agreed to hold a fur­ther meet­ing at the lev­el of Heads of State and Gov­ern­ment lev­el on a mutu­al­ly agreed date. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union