Brussels, 31 May 2023
Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, is visiting Costa Rica on 31 May and 1 June to deepen the EU’s partnership with the Central American country. In the run-up to the EU–CELAC Summit, taking place in July 2023, the EU is further enhancing its engagement with Latin American and Caribbean partners. The objective is to step up bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the current geopolitical context and respond to common challenges, discuss investment priorities as well as boosting the fair green and digital transitions that underpin the global recovery and tackle inequalities. The partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean will be boosted under Global Gateway, the EU’s strategy for delivering trusted and sustainable connections with partner countries in digital, transport and energy and green infrastructure, as well as strengthening health and education systems. The Commissioner’s visit comes ahead the upcoming Joint Communication on the EU’s relations with the region.
In San José, Commissioner Urpilainen will meet President Chaves, Vice-President Brunner, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tinoco and several other key government Ministers to discuss the preparation of the Global Gateway Investment Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as investments priorities for both the EU, Latin American and Caribbean partners. She will launch the cooperation priorities for 2023 with Costa Rica as well as the ‘Safeguarding Biodiversity’ project with Vice-Minister of the Environment Gutiérrez. Commissioner Urpilainen will also meet with youth representatives and visit an EU-supported secondary school, an EU-supported Costa Rican Coffee Institute to discuss sustainable trade and the fight against deforestation as well as a Bayer pharmaceutical plant under construction near San José that offers further potential for cooperation to boost the local manufacturing capacities in the country.
EbS will provide coverage of the mission.
Source – EU Commission