It is a great honour for me to be here today in this great nation’s Senate. Thank you very much for inviting me to address this key democratic institution. The house of Mexican federalism.
In this very week that is so important for relations between the European Union and Mexico. More than ten years after our last summit, which took place in Brussels, we will hold our eighth EU-Mexico summit here tomorrow. A high-level meeting at which our modernised Global Agreement will be signed. 26 years after the original agreement took effect.
We are facing an epochal change: technological changes, the climate emergency and geopolitical tensions are changing the world in profound ways. Of particular concern is the fact that the rules-based multilateral order that emerged after the Second World War is being called into question. And it is no surprise that many are predicting a return to the law of the jungle.
I want to be more optimistic. The future is not set in stone. History is scattered with moments when progress seemed to be moving inevitably in one direction, but in the end it moved in another. Few expected the sudden fall of the Soviet Union. And then others, well into the 1990s, were quick to declare the ‘end of history’, the final triumph of liberal democracy and the rules-based international order. Now we see that that was not precisely the case.
History rarely follows a straight line. When it seems that we are moving inexorably in a particular direction, new dynamics emerge that steer us in the opposite direction. And faced with today’s prevailing uncertainty, my hope is that the majority of nations will choose cooperation over rupture and isolation. That they will opt for dialogue between partners who believe in stability and respect for international law.
That of course is the European Union’s unequivocal will and the strategy we are implementing, promoting agreements and deepening our alliances with all of our partners – for example with India, with Australia, with Mercosur, with Indonesia, with Chile, with South Africa, with Thailand, and of course with Mexico.
The European Union needs Mexico. The world needs Mexico.
Whenever I come to this city I am overwhelmed by this great country’s exuberance, colour and vitality. This is a civilisation thousands of years old whose identity throughout the world is rich, complex and universal. Because Mexico has something that is hard to describe but impossible to ignore – an extraordinary intensity.
Mexicans have always made use of that energy to fight for their freedom and their independence. Because the Mexican Republic, including from this very Senate, has always defended fundamental ideas such as popular sovereignty, the separation of powers and the rule of law, and the conviction that no people has the right to decide the destiny of another.
The ideas of the Enlightenment may well have originated in Europe. But Mexico has always shown us that these ideals did not belong to a continent, but to the whole of humanity. A basis on which it has developed a foreign policy that is respected and admired.
To quote Benito Juárez’s immortal words at this plenary: ‘Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others means peace’. Words that are not only a central pillar of Mexico’s diplomatic tradition, but are also a vision of the international order based on law, sovereignty and mutual respect.
That is why Mexico enjoys great prestige: for its defence of peace, for its commitment to dialogue and also for its generosity. In Europe we will not forget how, in the last century, you opened your doors to thousands of our exiles. This hospitality will always be an indelible chapter in our shared memory, which should serve to give us hope in a future of cooperation.
Our Global Agreement of 2000 has been a success story. To date, the agreement has created: 5.5 million jobs in Mexico, EUR 82 billion in trade in goods and over EUR 25 billion in trade in services.
The EU is the second largest investor in Mexico: EUR 209 billion in accumulated investment. And it is the second largest export market for Mexican products. Mexico is also the European Union’s second largest trading partner in Latin America, and the first in terms of trade per capita.
The figures speak for themselves, but we have to be even more ambitious. That is why tomorrow we will sign the Modernised Global Agreement. The agreement will eliminate further tariffs, which will boost trade and investment and create great opportunities for Mexican companies to export to and invest in the EU.
But this agreement is not just an update of our trade rules. It is a new bridge between Europe and Mexico, broader, more solid and better prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. It is a commitment to fair trade, shared prosperity, and sustainability. An agreement which will deepen our political dialogue and our cooperation in key areas: from security, migration, climate and the environment, to the green and digital transition, innovation and human rights.
And we are very grateful to President Sheinbaum for relaunching relations with the European Union and for making it possible to sign this modernisation of the Agreement. The Global Gateway Investment Agenda will support the President’s ‘Mexico Plan’ by generating concrete benefits for the Mexican people.
Europe wants to invest more in Mexico. And it wants to invest in strategic sectors in particular: clean energy, digitalisation, sustainable infrastructures, technology industries and resilient supply chains.
Our synergies are evident. Mexico has enormous strengths: talent, industrial muscle and a strategic geographical position. The global green and technological transition offers an extraordinary opportunity for building an even more ambitious partnership together.
And, of course, we will need the support of all the institutions to continue building this relationship. And that of our parliaments. I would therefore like to acknowledge the solid and committed efforts of the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee, whose role, after two decades of work, is now more important than ever.
I would particularly like to thank Antonio López-Istúriz White and Beatriz Robles Gutiérrez, who are here with us today, for the leading role they have played in keeping this strategic relationship between Europe and Mexico alive.
In Europe, we are facing an existential threat . The war of aggression being waged against Ukraine by a permanent member of the Security Council is unacceptable and threatens the security of every nation on the planet. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of any country is a fundamental right enshrined in the United Nations Charter that must be respected.
The European Union will support, to the very end, all efforts aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine. A peace that fully respects Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The European Union advocates for international law to be respected everywhere in the world, whether in Ukraine, the Middle East or Latin America. We therefore call for a concerted effort to strengthen international law and multilateral institutions.
This is not about self-interest – it is a question of survival. This is why we must work together to push for more representative and effective international governance. Because today’s world is no longer what it was in 1945. Multilateral institutions must adapt to a more diverse and complex international landscape in order to tackle challenges that no single country, however powerful, can face alone.
Europe and Mexico can be important allies in promoting a reform of the United Nations. A reform that preserves the fundamental principles of the international order while better reflecting the realities of the 21st century.
Dear friends, I will now conclude. In his novel Pedro Páramo, the writer Juan Rulfo told us about Comala: a ‘village full of echoes’, where voices had stopped listening to each other. Where every murmur came from a place of isolation and mistrust.
The multilateral system may be at risk of becoming something similar: a space filled with echoes, where nations continually repeat their interests, fears and grievances, without actually listening to each other. The decline of multilateralism does not only start when institutions fail. It starts when we stop believing that our voices can be part of something shared, when dialogue is replaced by mistrust, and when common rules lose their legitimacy.
But, as I said at the start of my speech: the future is not set in stone. It is in our hands. That is why today, more than ever, the European Union and Mexico, together with other friendly nations, must speak with one voice. Not to create new echoes, but to rebuild a shared conversation. Because we can and must continue to cooperate. Because international law matters. Because we must ensure that the community of nations does not become another Comala.
Because, ultimately, Rulfo’s great lesson is that, even through murmurs, the human need to be heard endures. And as long as there are voices that can find each other, there is still hope.
Thank you very much.
Long live the European Union! Long live Mexico!