Delegations of the European Union and Mexico met in Brussels earlier this month for the first round of negotiations to update the Economic Partnership, Political Coordination and Cooperation Agreement (Global Agreement), which entered into force in 2000.

Since then, the international context has changed significantly, resulting in the need to reinforce the bilateral framework and strengthen the strategic partnership.

“The opening of negotiations for the modernization of the EU-Mexico Global Agreement constitutes an important step in this sense,” said a joint EU-Mexico statement. “It is notably crucial to adapt EU-Mexico relations to the new realities of global trade and investment policies and flows, strengthen political dialogue, and increase cooperation and coordination on foreign policy issues to better respond to the shared global challenges of a new modern world, from security threats, to migration, the fight against epidemics and climate change.”

Mexico and the EU agreed to take advantage of the opportunity to innovate in the design of a multidimensional framework that promotes bilateral, regional, bi-regional and triangular cooperation arrangements and contributes to the new international development cooperation architecture under the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Addis Ababa Agenda.

In the area of trade and investment, the modernization of the Global Agreement will build on what has been covered in the most recent EU and Mexican bilateral trade agreements with a view to securing better rules for all and the highest possible level of liberalization.

During this initial round of talks, the delegations focused on working methods and organization of work, but also engaged in a first exchange on the content of the modernized agreement.

The parties agreed to work between sessions to prepare the second negotiating round to be held in Mexico City in the autumn of 2016.

“Both sides,” said the joint statement, “are strongly committed to achieving swiftly the objective of creating an updated framework with tangible benefits for all 625 million Europeans and Mexicans.”