Argentina

Argentina is a middle-income country with a very large territory but a relatively small population. It is the third economy of Latin America after Brazil and Mexico. Argentina has a long tradition of European immigration which has led to strong economic, social and cultural transatlantic links, especially with Spain and Italy. Furthermore, the EU as a whole is its first partner in cooperation, its first investor and its second trade partner after Brazil.

Argentina was the first country of Latin America to formalize its relations with the EU under the form of a third-generation cooperation agreement. The Framework Trade and Economic Co-operation Agreement between the EU and Argentina entered into force as soon as 1990. It includes as fundamental principles two recurrent cornerstones of our cooperation policy: the strengthening of democracy and human rights, as well as regional integration. The follow-up of the agreement entails periodic meetings of the EU-Argentina Joint Commission.

During the nineties, some sectoral agreements were concluded in this framework on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and science and technology.

Another important aspect of the relation is the bilateral co-operation whose current orientations are set out in the Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013 [418 KB] . 

The Strategy identifies three main focal sectors for the EU-Argentina cooperation: education and training; economic competitiveness; capacity‑building in the public and academic sectors. These priorites were confirmed by a mid-term review [2 MB]  of the cooperation programme conducted in 2010.