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Why is Latin America important for Europe?
Four European personalities from different fields, explain the reasons to demand new ways of understanding between Latin America and Europe.
Josep Piqué
Ministry of Foreing Affairs, Spain
Europe is today nearer Latin American reality, due to the fact that Spain has managed to marshal both Continents' common interests from the time of our incorporation into community institutions.
Spain has turned into one of Latin America's main Europeas clients, with many interests and substantial strategical investments in key sectors. Therefore, our country shall continuo upholding that Latin-American countries should hecome preterential partners for an advanced political and financial cooperation. The recent Agreement with Mexico and negotialions iniatiated with MERCOSUR and Chile are significant examples of such policy.
The summit nf t leads of State and Government to be held in Spain in 2002, under our Presidency, should culmínate the political dialogue between the Europeas Union and Latin American and Caribbean countries and, aboye all, it should allow us to face the futuro with more ambition and clecision for everybody's benefit.
Jorge Semprún
Writer
Historically, the process of globalization began centuries ago, in the age of the Disaweries. Ever lince, Latin America has been an important factor in Chis process, a driving
force for development. It is trae that the balance of the exchanges hetween Europe and Latin America has tor a long time heen one-sided, based on colonialistor imperialist relationships. With the achievement ot independence in the countries in South America, the gradual strengthening of democratic svstems have tended towards the establishment of relationships on a more equal footing, whether in the cultural sphere or in market economies.
Todav, and all the more so in the medium- and long-term horizons, the new phase of globalization promoted through the technological revolution in which we are immersed requires a qualitative change in the relationships between Europe and Latin America. Civilizations as variced as ours, vet linked by their common rools in the might ot democracy, inherited from that Enlightenment which inspired the leaders of the independence movemenis, can only gain in wealth, wisdom and maturity by encouraging an awareness of others and a multilateral exchange ot culture.
All of this is not merely necessarv but perfectly possihle. Time to get clown to work!
Xavier Irala
President of Iberia, España
If you take into account that over the !así year Spanish companies Nave douhled iheir investment in Latin America, to reach a figure of 20,000 million dollars, and that with this figure Spain has become the lending overseas investor, overtaking even the United States, this may give you an idea of the important of a market which has a population in excess of 400 million, and which plays an increasingly important role in the international sphere.
Iberia has always peen committed to this market, and over the course of the more than fifty years which it has peen flying to Latin America, it has managed to become the leading airline linking Europe and Latin America. One of Iberia's strategic objectives is to confirme and consolidate this leadership, on the hasis of which the decision, among others, has peen taken to participare in Oneworld, as a founding member. The significant contribution of Iberia to Oneworld lies precisely in its leadership in this market, where our network is supplemented by those of the remainder of the companies in the alliance. Latin America will theretore confirme to be, in the short and the long term, a strategic market for Iberia, for Spain, and by extension, for Europe.
Daniel Franklin
Editorial Director. The Economist Intelligence Unit, United Kingdom
Since Columbus, Europeans have been beguiled by the potential of Latin America. Too often in modern times, they have also been disappointed by the reality. Yet relations are ripe for a renaissance, for a numher of reasons.
First, there's the spread of democracy throughout the region. Elected governments
do not necessarily adopt sound policies, but they are more likely to create open societies. Secondly, Latin American has abandoned the failed inward-looking model of economic development and opted -albeit at varying speeds— for liberalisation.
Size has always been part of the region's attraction, but now the Internet has the potential to turn the Spanish-speaking world, too, into a vast marketplace for e-business. Not least, the economic prospects for Latin America are looking up. For Europe, the opportunities arising from these trends are appealing. For Latir America, Europe is an important market and a guard against excessive dependence on the United States. Relations between Latin America and Europe - political, commercial, cultural - are ready for a new momentum.
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