After the incorporation to the European Union of 12 new East Europe countries, namely: Estonia, Leetonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus; it is not very likely that the so-called " strong" members of the European Union will be willing to increase their foreign investment in Mexico, because there are 12 new countries in their Union that require their support.

Europe represents nowadays 19% of the world market; Mexico, as we all know, has a free trade agreement with most of the countries in the Old Continent. There are certain cultural similarities and roots that relate us to European countries more than those with our close American neighbors.
However, commercial traffic to European countries is minimum, not so diplomatic bonds. As far as trade is concerned, according to figures provided by several European Union commercial attachés, more than 88% of Mexican trade is made with the USA and as little as less than 5% is made with the European Union. Countries like Brazil have larger trade exchange with Europe, twice as much as Mexico´s, even if they do not have a Trade Agreement as we do.

It is not easy for Mexico being neighbor of the largest economic world power, especially because of our high economic-commercial dependency, stressed even more after NAFTA was enforced more than 10 years ago. This makes of Mexico the less diversified of all the markets in the world. Europe represents nowadays the largest commercial block on earth. With a population over 455 million people and an average GDP per capita of US$20,000, the potential for growth and opportunities, as we can see, is extremely high.

It is important to mention that until last May 1st, the European Union had only 15 members, of which only 12 belonged to the European Economic Community, i.e. the 12 original members where Euro is the official currency. In addition to the 12 new members, Denmark, England and Sweden still keep, for several reasons, their own official currency. What is interesting of the European Union is precisely the type of relationships among them, mainly the free circulation of goods and services and free citizens transit, which could hardly happen in the commercial block to which Mexico belongs with its North America neighbors.

There is no doubt that there are significant differences between members of the former Soviet Union and other members of the European Union, something similar to Mexico and the USA, however the key lies in the flexibility of countries considered "strong" and also members of the European Union to provide support to these new members so that they can belong to this select group of countries. This speaks highly of the disposition of consolidated countries, which is quite different from the up-and-down relationship and disposition between Mexico and our North neighbor. We could mention, as an example, Spain and its fast growth after its incorporation to the European Union; it is nowadays one of the main investors in Latin America.

I am certain that Mexico requires a larger market diversification; our traditional dependency on the United States is so significant that consequences of a negative hypothesis regarding the relations with North America would take Mexico to the edge of a systematic bankruptcy. On the other hand, I am aware that carrying out a diversification is extremely difficult, and even if it is necessary in theory, it is not so in the practice, mainly for the small and medium companies. Even if as a country we need to diversify, it is also necessary that said diversification is profitable for companies, which unfortunately is not the case for small and medium companies. This may look absurd, even if Mexico is the country with the largest number of trade agreements, we are the less diversified country in the world. This is still another of life´s paradoxes.