Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgardo Riveros, visited Brussels to deepen Chile's relationship with the European Union and express the importance of modernizing the EU-Chile Association Agreement. The visit began with a meeting with a member of the European Parliament, Inmaculada Rodriguez-Piñero, in the European Parliament.

The modernization of the Agreement is necessary because the European Union is the third trade partner of Chile, just after China and United States. The EU is also one of the major donors in cooperation for development giving more than half of the Official Development Assistance (ODA).

At the end of the appointment, Vice Minister Riveros stated, "the objective of this visit was to talk about the formal negotiation of the Association Agreement between EU and Chile with European Union authorities".

He also remarked the visit allowed "advances that will facilitate and accelerate the negotiation process to sign the agreement. It was a favorable encounter. We could emphasize in a series of new issues for Chile and UE to collaborate with each other, such as education, science, technology, innovation, and security".

The visit continued with a meeting between Under Secretary Riveros and Director for Development Coordination - Latin America and Caribbean, Jolita Butkeviciene. After this Riveros assisted to lunch with Managing Director Americas for the European External Action Service (EEAS), Edita Hrda, and with Director for South America for the EEAS, Adrianus Koetsenruijter.

At the end of the day, the national authority met with Deputy Head of Cabinet of Cecilia Malmstrom's team (Trade Commissioner), Miguel Ceballos.

Under Secretary Riveros was able to talk and inform about the processes and the actual state of approval of the mandate, "I highlight that we have been able to give a different focus to the modernization of the agreement. We have discussed on gender issues, and SEMs issues, and their possible solutions. We leave this place with a positive picture of what the European Parliament is doing", concluded the Under Secretary.

The Chilean delegation accompanying Vice Minister Riveros was Ambassador of Chile to Belgium, Raúl Fernández, Europe Director, Alejandra Guerra, and the Head of Department of Bilateral and Multilateral Cooperation for the AGCID, Enrique O'Farrill-Julien.

Background of relationship with EU

At a bilateral level, the relationship is deep and multisectoral. The most relevant topics are trade and politics, also cooperation and exchange of experiences in education, science, technology, innovation, SEMs, energy and the environment.

Chile and the European Union are working on three triangular cooperation projects: food aid and food security support in Cuba; Inclusive Development for Latin America: an opportunity for Governments and Social Actors, initiative that certifies work capabilities to improve employability (also for other countries such as Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Costa Rica); and the Economic Cooperation for the Development with Central America.

Regarding Chilean investments in the European Union, between 1990 and 2015 the investments increased to 3.979 million dollars, 3,7% of the total investment in the world. The main countries receiving Chilean investments are Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, and Croatia. These countries represent 95% of the direct investments with the EU, in which 50,3% of the investment is part of the industrial sector and 49,7% services.