Joint Communiqué following the EU-Peru High level Political Dialogue

The VII meeting in the framework of the EU-Peru Bilateral Consultation Mechanism took place on Wednesday 1st February in Lima, Peru. It is a high-level political dialogue forum in which both sides discuss areas of common interest. The Delegation from Peru was chaired by Ambassador Néstor Popolizio, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Delegation of the European Union by Ambassador Edita Hrdá, Managing Director for the Americas in the European External Action Service.

Human rights, the fight against the global problem of drugs, climate change, regional and cross-border development, economic and trade issues as well as academic and scientific cooperation were among the topics discussed.

Peru and the EU exchanged views on recent political and economic developments. Peru referred to its efforts to lay down the basis for developing a modern, integrated and sustained State and stressed its interest to improve the quality of public policies.

In this context, the European Union expressed its support to Peru for its rapprochement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as Peru has demonstrated very good performances in the adoption of OECD standards and best practices during the implementation of its two-year country programme in 2015-2016.

Peru and the European Union signed up to Terms of Reference for their Human Rights Dialogue. This will lead to a better understanding, allow the exchange of best practices and contribute to deepen relations at the bilateral and multilateral levels due to the convergence of shared values.

Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to continue strengthening cooperation and coordination to address the world drug problem, guided by the principle of common and shared responsibility, and to confront this scourge through a comprehensive, balanced, multi-disciplinary and sustainable approach.

Likewise, both sides confirmed the important results achieved in the various areas of cooperation, and stressed in particular the progress in regional and cross-border policies, which have stimulated competitiveness and innovation in several regions of the country and border regions, coinciding with the priorities of national policies and fostering integration with neighbouring countries.

In addition, the Dialogue stressed the importance of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 as well as the study grants under the Erasmus+ programme. Peru declared its willingness to increase its participation, further promoting the mobility of students, professors and academic staff in order to make more of its citizen benefit from the programme.

Peru and the European Union stated their satisfaction with the successful implementation of the Agreement on the Schengen visa waiver, which promotes the rapprochement with Europe, with beneficial impacts for tourism and for business.

In conclusion, both sides agreed that important advances had been made in their political and economic relations as well as in their cooperation and stressed the importance of deepening further their relationship. This will allow identifying and adopting new instruments fortifying the achievements already obtained and promoting more ambitious objectives.