On 17th June there was a summit between the EU and Mexico in Los
Cabos.
On this occasion representatives from both sides recalled the
importance of the partnership between the EU and Mexico in terms of
the economy, trade, security, Human Rights and the environment. The
President of the Council of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy
declared that it was necessary "to strengthen the relationship between
the Union and Mexico and to discuss the possibility of renewing the
global agreement made in 2000." This summit led to "the establishment
of the bases for future cooperation" according to European Commission
President José Manuel Barroso...
VI Mexico – EU Summit
Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, June 17, 2012
JOINT STATEMENT
"The sixth summit between Mexico and the European Union (EU) was held on June 17 2012 in Los
Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. It was presided by the President of Mexico, Mr. Felipe
Calderón Hinojosa accompanied by Ambassador Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Minister of Foreign
Affairs. The European Union was represented by the President of the European Council, Mr.
Herman Van Rompuy and Mr. José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission.
The Leaders highlighted the maturity of their relation in the framework of their Strategic
Partnership. Likewise, the Leaders stressed the reliability and the depth of the aforementioned
relation as well as the convergence in values and positions in multiple issues of the international
agenda.
I. BILATERAL ISSUES
Political situation in both regions
The Leaders exchanged views on the recent and upcoming elections in their respective regions.
G-20 and the international financial and economic situation
G-20
The Leaders emphasized their commitment to develop a bilateral dialogue on macroeconomic
issues aimed at exchanging points of view, improving mutual understanding and promoting
coordination in different fora that deal with economic and financial issues of world relevance;
particularly within the context of the Group of Twenty. The European Union reiterated its support
for the priorities of the Mexican presidency for the VII G-20 Leaders’ Summit (Los Cabos, June 18-
19 2012), in particular for promoting economic growth and job creation, integrating green growth
discussions into the G-20 economic agenda and the promotion of sustainable development.
Global financial and economic situation
The Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to promote sustainable economic growth in their
respective regions. This requires a suitable atmosphere for private investment, including the
promotion of economic integration, trade liberalization and respect for private property. The
Leaders underlined the importance of legal certainty in the development of foreign investment in
Latin America.
The Leaders recognized the importance of keeping markets open and of fighting protectionism,
highlighting that the interdependence of global production operations requires deepening the
evaluation of implications of global value chains on world trade, economic growth and
development. The Leaders reiterated their firm stand against protectionism and emphasized that
trade facilitation is one of the most important actions to enable well-functioning regional and global
value chains.
Likewise, the Leaders expressed their unwavering support to strengthening the multilateral trading
system and underlined its primacy in regulating international trade and its central importance to
accelerating global economic growth.
Building on the outcomes of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, the Leaders highlighted
the importance of giving fresh impetus to the Doha negotiations with a view to achieving results in
areas with potential for solution and in the interest of Least Developed Countries. The Leaders will
intensify efforts to find ways and approaches to overcome the most critical and fundamental
stalemates in specially challenging areas.
The Leaders recognized Trade Facilitation as one of the most important actions to enable wellfunctioning
regional and global value chains, which would benefit developed and developing
countries alike. Therefore, the Leaders expressed support for an early conclusion of the Trade
Facilitation negotiations in the WTO, including support measures to enable the Least Developed
Countries to implement the agreement.
Strategic Partnership and Joint Executive Plan
The Leaders decided to extend the implementation of the Joint Executive Plan of the Strategic
Partnership, which reflects both sides’ commitment to continue building a closer, deeper and more
mature relationship by means of concrete actions and joint initiatives.
Cooperation Mexico-EU
The Leaders concurred that cooperation is an important component to strengthen the intense
relation between Mexico and the EU. Therefore, the Leaders agreed to instruct their competent
agencies to jointly review the general framework and the operational basis of the bilateral
cooperation. Activities in this field play a crucial role in the development of new capacities in areas
of common interest such as social cohesion, science and technology, environment and climate
change, competitiveness and innovation, health, regional development and energy.
The Leaders expressed their interest to continue working dynamically in projects of social cohesion,
particularly in subjects related to urban poverty, micro-regionalization, social participation and the
decentralization of programs. The preparation for the second phase of the Social Cohesion
Programme with a co-financed budget focusing on Human Rights and Public Security matters is
underway.
Likewise, the Leaders recognized the importance of ongoing economic cooperation initiatives to
boost the competitiveness of Mexican SMEs, as well as to provide them with the necessary tools to
access the European markets in the same way as EU firms access the Mexican market.
Regarding scientific and technological cooperation, the Leaders recognized the importance of the
bilateral dialogue in this sector -which has reached its 5th edition. They decided to continue
harnessing the opportunities that the European Union offers in the field of research and
development within the VII Framework Program and greater diffusion of the communication
channels and the links between Mexico and the EU under the new Horizon 2020, especially those
concerning research and innovation for the best use of the respective infrastructures of research and
the joint creation of innovative products in fields such as the fight against climate change, food
security and energy production, among others.
The Leaders highlighted that their education and cultural cooperation is based on joint participation,
responsibility and financing of projects. Moreover, the Leaders sustain a high level dialogue on
education and culture, established by the Joint Declaration between the Ministry of Public
Education and the National Council for Culture and Arts on the Mexican side, and the
Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth of the European Commission on the EU
side.
The Leaders expressed their intention to: 1) Continue fostering the activities and commitments
contained in the first Sectoral Dialogue on Higher Education. 2) Launch a first Sectoral Dialogue on
Culture via a meeting between senior officials of the Mexican National Council for Culture and the
Arts and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture, expected to be
held in early 2013.
The Leaders emphasized that they maintain a rich exchange of ideas via the mutual exchange of
academics, specialists, researchers, artists, creators, interpreters and students. The Leaders
recognized that the programs that offer education and specialization have contributed to training
human capital in priority areas and expressed their commitment to examine their respective
mobility schemes in order to remove possible existing obstacles.
Mexico extended an invitation to the European Union to jointly explore new schemes for triangular
cooperation to design development projects under the Mesoamerican Integration and Development
Project.
The two sides will study the opportunity of establishing an EU Chemical, Biological, Radiological
and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centre of Excellence in Mexico.
Security
The Leaders welcomed the launch of the Policy Dialogue on Public Security and Law Enforcement,
which has allowed the Leaders to focus on concrete points of interest, such as Organised Crime,
without losing track of the perspective offered by the general framework of the relation and the
cooperation developing in this field with the Member States.
The Leaders are exploring actions to be taken in the short run, such as the exchange of experiences,
information and best practices between public security and law enforcement authorities of Mexico
and the EU as well as cooperation on law enforcement training; all of this, without undermining the
design of a long term strategy to harness the technical capacities and experience offered by the EU
institutions through the implementation of cooperation activities.
Likewise, Mexico expressed its interest in the possibility of triangular cooperation with Central
American governments in this sector.
Strengthening the economic and trade relation between Mexico and the EU in the framework
of the FTA
The Leaders concurred that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Mexico and the EU, in force
since 2000, has established the basis to strengthen the economic relations between them,
contributing to the diversification of markets and to the increase of competitiveness for the benefit
of both industries and consumers. The Leaders note with satisfaction the significant increase of
bilateral trade under the Agreement, with a record of 57 billion dollars (in excess of € 40 billion) in
2011. Similarly, the flow of bilateral investments has continued its upward trend, consolidating the
position of the EU as Mexico’s second largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), through
investments of 105 billion dollars accumulated between 1999 and 2011, which represent 36.6% of
Mexico’s FDI received in that period of time.
In line with the objectives of promoting growth and mutual economic integration, the Leaders
reiterated their support to an ambitious liberalization of trade, services and investment and to further
deepening the bilateral trade relations between Mexico and the EU.
II. MULTILATERAL AFFAIRS
Arms Trade treaty (ATT), disarmament and non-proliferation
The Leaders recognized the importance of working closely during the UN process on the Arms
Trade Treaty. The ATT shall regulate the legal trade in arms by setting the highest possible
international standards for transfers of weapons, and establishing mechanisms to prevent diversion
of weapons into the illicit market and for use by transnational organized crime, thus making global
trade in arms more responsible and transparent. The EU and Mexico attach the utmost importance
to the inclusion in an Arms Trade Treaty of clear and strong transfer criteria on the respect to
international humanitarian law and international human rights law in arms trade.
The Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to working together to support and strengthen the
multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation treaties and agreements and to fully implement their
international obligations. The Leaders agreed on the need to inter alia uphold and reinforce the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) including in the framework of the ongoing NPT review
cycle, and to actively contribute to efforts supporting the entry into force of the Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty as well as the commencement of negotiations of a treaty banning the
production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and other nuclear devices.
Sustainable Development (United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20)
and Climate Change (towards COP18 in Doha)
Rio +20
The Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to work for the success of the United Nations Conference
on Sustainable Development (Rio +20), which will be held in Rio de Janeiro from June 20-22,
2012. The Leaders expressed their engagement to join forces to achieve an ambitious and concrete
outcome in the conference and to strongly encourage the international community to give its
political commitment to sustainable development as the strategy to simultaneously foster economic
growth, social wellbeing and environmental protection. In this regard, the Leaders stated their
common objectives to foster a transition towards an inclusive green economy and to work toward
the establishment of international environmental governance as part of the institutional framework
for sustainable development.
Climate Change
The Leaders concurred that the results of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP7), represent a fundamental
step forward in strengthening the regime against climate change and reiterated their support to the
multilateral negotiations oriented to reach a legally binding agreement applicable to all Parties,
taking into account the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective
capabilities. The Leaders agreed on the need to strengthen efforts to reach an ambitious agreement
to meet the goals of mitigation with the objective of holding the increase in global average
temperature below 2 °C, promoting adaptation actions, the use of low carbon technologies, the
development of market mechanisms and the full implementation and financial support to the Green
Climate Fund, as part of the effort to mobilize significant climate finance from public, private and
innovative sources to strengthen the global efforts in the fight against climate change.
Human Rights
Throughout the Summit, the Leaders also confirmed the high-level engagement and cooperation
that Mexico and the EU maintain on Human Rights, both in bilateral and multilateral fora.
The Leaders recognized that cooperation on Human Rights proved to be instrumental and it is
closely linked to the Bilateral Dialogue on Human Rights. The Leaders recognized the importance
of maintaining the Cooperation Program on Human rights, which has achieved important results in
the promotion and protection of Human Rights. The Leaders coincided in the importance to
strengthen the cooperation as a tool to foster the bilateral dialogue. The European Union recognized
the important steps taken by Mexico in this field, specifically in what refers to its internal normative
framework based on international standards.
The Leaders exchanged views regarding the content and the developments of the Third Meeting of
the Bilateral Dialogue on Human Rights to be held in Mexico City, in October of this year, as well
as the Seminar on Human Rights between Civil Society Organizations of Mexico and the EU that
will take place in the context of the aforementioned meeting.
REGIONAL AFFAIRS
Bi-regional Summit (CELAC-EU)
The Leaders underlined the importance to strengthen the Bi-regional Strategic Partnership between
Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union as a privileged space for an open
dialogue and collaboration in the political, economical, cultural, social and environmental
cooperation fields. They also agreed to strengthen it through the implementation of the Joint
Executive Plan adopted at the VI EU-LAC Summit in Madrid in 2010.
The Leaders also expressed their commitment to a successful Summit of the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States and the EU (CELAC-EU), due to be held in Santiago, Chile, on
January 26/27, 2013.
OTHER BUSINESS
The Leaders reiterate their commitment to continue facilitating the building of institutionalized
channels and mechanisms of dialogue with the civil society of Mexico and the EU that enrich the
bilateral relation. »
Bien à vous,
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