On November 9 and 10, Santa Marta will welcome 12 heads of state, 6 vice presidents, and 23 foreign ministers who will participate in the fourth edition of the summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the European Union (CELAC-EU). The diplomatic meeting will seek to renew multilateralism, strengthen cooperation, and consolidate bi-regional alliances amid an increasingly tense global landscape.
The first edition of this summit was held in 2013, and the last one in July 2023 in Brussels. This fourth summit comes at the most complex moment in diplomatic relations between Colombia and the United States in more than a century, and amid regional tension over the White House’s military operations in the Caribbean Sea. For this reason, Colombia will seek to project a unified Latin American and Caribbean voice at this meeting, from its position as Pro Tempore President of CELAC, assumed on April 9, 2025.
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Panoramic view of the city of Santa Marta. Foto:CIVITATIS
But beyond political issues, the aim is to promote a shared agenda with the European Union in key areas such as energy transition, healthcare self-sufficiency, regional trade integration, and digital and scientific cooperation. Currently, trade between the two regions exceeds €200 billion annually (Eurostat, 2024).
Topics to be addressed
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a wide range of issues will be addressed that will serve to promote decisions around what has been termed the Triple Transition: energy, digital, and environmental.
These topics include promoting renewable energy and decarbonization, regional electrical interconnection with EU cooperation, inclusive digitalization to close technological gaps and boost productive transformation, climate financing and protection of strategic ecosystems, cooperation on climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
It also proposes reducing dependence on pharmaceutical imports, technology transfer initiatives in health, promoting agroecological models and sustainable value chains, bi-regional cooperation in biotechnology and water management, strengthening multilateralism, promoting fair and sustainable trade, and human mobility and migration management.
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Objective
Negotiations on the declaration in Santa Marta. Foto: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Once this dialogue has taken place, the adoption of the 2025 CELAC-EU Santa Marta Declaration will be promoted, which will seek concrete agreements. This will be reinforced by a 2025-2027 CELAC-EU Roadmap to translate political commitments into tangible projects.
Who will be there?
High-level guests include the President of the European Council, António Costa; the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley; the Prime Minister of Portugal, Luis Montenegro; the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Investment, Economic Transformation, Civil Aviation, and E-Governance of Belize, John Briceno; Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo; President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez; President of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi Martínez; Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Dich Schoof; Prime Minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Mark Phillips; Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Terrance Drew; and Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be among those attending. Foto:AFP
They will be joined by the Vice Presidents of the Kingdom of Belgium, Haiti, Slovenia, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Cuba, and the European Commission, as well as 23 foreign ministers, 17 heads of delegation, and representatives from 21 international organizations.
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Why Santa Marta?
Santa Marta was chosen as the venue for the IV CELAC-EU Summit because of its “historical, symbolic, and strategic value.” In 2025, the city will commemorate 500 years since its founding, an anniversary that was taken by the national government as an opportunity to highlight its role as the first city founded on the American mainland, a meeting point between cultures, and Europe’s gateway to America.
The 2025 EU-CELAC summit will be held in Santa Marta. Foto:Image created with artificial intelligence / ChatGPT
“This context gives a profound historical significance to a summit that seeks precisely to renew ties between Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union,” said the Foreign Ministry.
The agenda will begin on Sunday, November 9, with a sacred ceremony led by the highest spiritual authority of the indigenous community of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Mamo Aruhaco will welcome the delegations at the Santamar Convention Center. The official photo of the CELAC-EU summit will be taken immediately afterward.
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Parallel events
- CELAC-EU Academic Forum.
- CELAC-EU Youth Forum.
- CELAC-EU Dialogue on Education, Mobility, and Innovation.
- II Cycle of technical roundtables for the exchange of experiences in priority areas of work: Education as a human right, academic mobility, digitization and artificial intelligence, multilingualism and interculturalism, comprehensive education for peace, and addressing the climate crisis.
- Socialization of the Electric Power Interconnection Plan.
- Regional feminist cooperation forum.
- Definition of the scope of the Strategic Alliance with the EU and EMA-AMA-AMLAC technical sessions.
- Coordination of the Youth Film Series: Implementation of the film series, ensuring the promotion and transmission of the films.
- Creation of instruments for the promotion of an EIBIC culture.
- Technical meeting on sustainable agriculture.
POLITICAL DESK
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