The EU’s relationship with Latin America is one that has been neglected over the years, but the Spanish presidency of the EU has done much to revive it, Spain’s State Secretary for Latin America, Juan Pablo de Iglesia, told Friends of Europe’s EU/Latin America summit on Tuesday, 29 June 2010. EU Commissioner for Trade, Karel de Gucht, talked up a better free trade agreement and emphasised radically improved trade and investment opportunities once EU MERCOSUR negotiations will be concluded. The region, which came out of the financial crisis sooner and in a stronger position than the advanced countries, is an increasingly attractive place to do business, with innovation playing an ever-more important role, said Carlos Lopez Blanco, international head of Telefonica, the largest foreign investor in Latin America. As a key engine of global growth over the next few years, it is an area that Europe should be looking to do more business with, but it faces competition from the US and China. The reason the continent is so well-placed now is that it learnt from the mistakes of earlier crises, said Henrique de Campos Meirelles, Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil. Latin America has unique advantages in creating a low-carbon economy, because of its abundant hydropower, but the EU can play a key role in developing the energy market by helping the region to create integrated markets, said Jose-Maria Calvo-Sotelo, of Spanish energy company Endesa. It can also help with funding and technology transfer. The region’s well-developed biofuels industry can help the EU to meet its renewable fuel targets, pointed out Scania’s Henrik Henriksson, but only if the EU changes its tax regime for ethanol. In the final session, the World Bank’s Augusto de la Torre said that the EU has a unique opportunity to strengthen its ties with Latin America, which has emerged from decades of dealing with its own problems ready to re-engage with the world. Although the EU is losing ground in the continent compared with other trading partners, Europe’s cultural affinity with Latin America gives it an advantage compared with the US and China which it should take advantage of, added Osvaldo Rosales of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.