Brussels (EFE).- The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced this Monday that the European Union will invest more than 45,000 million euros in Latin America and the Caribbean through the European Global Gateway program.
“More than 135 projects are already on the starting line, from clean hydrogen to critical raw materials, from the expansion of high-performance data cable networks to the production of the most advanced RNA vaccines,” he said at the opening of a Round Table with political and business leaders prior to the EU-CELAC summit to be held this Monday and Tuesday in Brussels.
You will have to see what to prioritize
The president of the Community Executive stressed that Europe and the Latin American and Caribbean region will have to “agree together which sectors and value chains to prioritize”, as well as the best way to promote these investments with technical support, standards and capacities.
Von der Leyen insisted that the Global Gateway program “not only has the size to make a difference”, but that it represents a “new approach” when it comes to investing in large infrastructure projects since European investments will focus on ” create local value chains” so that the “added value stays in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
The Commission President cited clean hydrogen and the industry of critical raw materials as examples of areas with investment potential in which the EU and the Latin American and Caribbean region have “a common interest and shared ideas.”
“Unlike other foreign investors, we are not only interested in investing in the extraction of raw materials, we want to partner with you, build processing capacities, to make batteries and end products like electric vehicles,” said Von de Leyen, stressing that the EU can accompany its investment with “first-class technology and high-quality training for local workers”.
Renewable energy potential
He also highlighted the potential of the region in terms of renewable energy, with a wind and solar sector that is growing “exponentially also thanks to European investment” and considered that “the next natural step is to transform this clean energy into clean hydrogen”, which could be easily exported and feed industries such as steel, cement or clean transportation “all made in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
“There is a lot of potential to explore, we can do much more,” Von der Leyen insisted, after highlighting the business and investment cooperation that already exists between Europe and the American region.
The president of the Community Executive considered that “Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe need each other more than ever” in a world “more competitive and more conflictive than ever”, which is still recovering from the covid-19 pandemic, suffers the “harsh impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine” and witnesses “China’s growing steadfastness”.
“Europe aspires to be the partner of choice for Latin America and the Caribbean as we choose to be a partner for the region. We believe that the European offer to the region is different and important”, insisted Von der Leyen, for whom the EU-CELAC summit represents a “new beginning for an old friendship” between both regions.
Lula promises the EU a “new Brazil, fairer and more supportive” to attract investment
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in turn promised the European Union “a new Brazil, fairer and more supportive”, while defending that the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean make up a region “with many opportunities investment and consumption.
In his opening speech at the economic forum that precedes the summit of EU and CELAC countries, and just after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the bloc will mobilize 45,000 million in investments In that region, Lula stressed that “the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to play a strategic role for Europe and the world in general.”
“We need investments in social and urban infrastructure”, stressed the Brazilian president, also accompanied by the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, before noting that the countries of the region are “societies in a process of great social mobility” and that in them “new internal markets with millions of consumers” are created.
Lula also remarked in this context that his government will launch “a new investment plan to face” the different challenges that the country is facing after “six years of setbacks and stagnation”, referring to the period in which Brazil was presided over by Jair Bolsonaro.
Thus, he assured that the country will produce “quality employment”, will promote “paralyzed” investments and “accelerate” others that are already underway. In this line, he named, for example, investments in the railway, port, airport and highway network, as well as in clean energy and renewable sources such as wind, solar or green hydrogen.
Also in urban mobility, sanitation, housing, the transport chain, broadband or “quality” education, which, he said, is the “essential basis” for “the generation of technologies and innovation” and puts “the economy at the center of knowledge”.
The Brazilian president also stressed that his government is building this “new Brazil” without forgetting the “macroeconomic commitments”, such as the control of inflation and the consolidation of public accounts, aspects “fundamental for economic stability and progress social”.