Chile

After the re-establishment of democracy in 1990, the EU signed a first Framework Co-operation Agreement in December 1990, thereby officially restoring political relations with Chile. This Agreement was replaced by another Framework Co-operation Agreement, signed in June 1996, which aimed at establishing a political and economic Association between the two partners.

The EU and Chile negotiated and signed an Association Agreement on 18 November 2002. It is in force since 1 March 2005. The EU-Chile Association Agreement is an ambitious and innovative agreement that covers the main aspects of EU-Chile relations, i.e. political, trade and co-operation. The EU and Chile also signed in September 2002 an Agreement on scientific and technological co-operation, and on June 2005 the EU adopted a Horizontal Agreement with Chile in the field of Air transport.

In the framework of the Association Agreement several Association Councils , Association Committees [32 KB] and EU-Chile Summits took place since 2003, as well as several political dialogue meetings. Furthermore, the Association Agreement has had a strong impact on the EU-Chile trade relations and on bilateral co-operation on which details can be found in the Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013 [479 KB] .

The Mid-Term Review of the Country Strategy Paper [3 MB] , finalised in July 2010, confirms that the response strategy remains relevant and appropriate. The two major sectors prioritised from 2007 onwards, namely social cohesion, and innovation and competitiveness, have been retained and EU cooperation funds will be split 50:50 between these sectors during the 2011-13 implementation phase.