The Europe that looks at Latin America

The countdown begins for the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit to be held in Santo Domingo on Friday and Saturday, and which we face with renewed enthusiasm.

Those of us on this side of the Atlantic take advantage of this new appointment of the great Ibero-American family to take a closer look at Latin America and the Caribbean.

The experience of more than thirty years of Ibero-American Summits allows us to have a unique instrument for political dialogue, agreement and cooperation between the 22 countries that make up this community.

An irreplaceable instrument to give an Ibero-American response to the great challenges shared on both shores of the Atlantic.

Ibero-America is a reason for personal ties, values, agreements and cooperation at all levels, with Europe as a natural ally.

As of July 1, we have a new opportunity ahead of us to give a renewed impetus to that relationship.

Spain assumes the Presidency of the European Union and will take advantage of all its potential to strengthen ties even more, tie them and seal them for the vocation of permanence of a mutually beneficial relationship.

I am convinced that Latin America and the Caribbean is the most Eurocompatible region on the planet.

Together, we have an excellent platform for external action, from which we can contribute our experiences, achievements and proposals to the world, collaborating with various actors.

What unites us are our common principles and values, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, legal certainty and freedoms.

All this is summed up in the motto with which the current Pro Tempore Presidency of the Dominican Republic brings us all together in Santo Domingo: "Together for a fair and sustainable Ibero-America" ​​to which Spain also wants to add Europe.

Barely fifteen days after Spain assumed the Spanish Presidency of the EU, Brussels will host the European Union-CELAC Summit, which we must arrive at with objectives geared towards the interests, opportunities and challenges that we share.

The Ibero-American Summit is an excellent space to begin to define and adjust them.

The next Summit to be held in Santo Domingo allows us to pave the way with concrete actions.

Some of them are peremptory, such as those addressed by the Ibero-American Environmental Charter in which we work to provide solutions in the present that future generations can benefit from.

The Ibero-American Charter of Principles and Rights in Digital Environments that we have promoted to promote inclusion, access to education, culture and health for all our citizens is also of great relevance.

But we also have other issues of extraordinary urgency, such as what we have called "Critical path to achieve inclusive and sustainable food security in Ibero-America", an initiative that contains a valuable message for the international community on the role that Ibero-America can and should play in a time of crisis and uncertainty of prices and supplies.

These are issues for which Spain will spare no resources.

Our common ideals are a valuable instrument to bring the voice of Latin America to the heart of Europe.

We do it in Spanish and Portuguese, from the "iberofonía", which will also emerge strengthened from this Ibero-American Summit thanks to the commitment of Spain, together with Portugal, Brazil and Paraguay, and all the other Ibero-American countries, to give a new impetus to bilingualism Spanish Portuguese.

And also valuing Spanish, a heritage shared by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

At the end of this Ibero-American Summit, the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) will begin.

It is an occasion that Arequipa (Peru) has offered to Cádiz, and that Spain will take advantage of to show its determined commitment to the care, promotion and unity of the Spanish language.

A Spanish that will be heard with more force in Europe under our Presidency.

Spain will project this reality that the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo will expose to the world and that a part of Europe is still not sufficiently aware of.

We will make a new appeal to our partners on the continent to look Latin America in the face.

With a constructive, exciting, fraternal, permanent look that allows us to see a horizon of shared prosperity with a vocation of permanence from which our peoples benefit.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain