The summit is the third between Brussels and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), but only the first since 2015, with several issues undermining closer ties.
"We need our close friends to be at our side in these uncertain times," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said, welcoming Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
As EU and CELAC leaders gathered in Brussels, diplomats were struggling to agree on the wording of the final communique -- with Europe pushing for a strong stance against Moscow.
The 33 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean have no agreed position on the Ukraine war, however, and some would like to protect ties with Russia or seek a compromise peace deal.
Instead, some CELAC delegates will push for the implementation of the 2019 EU-Mercosur trade deal, which has stalled on European concerns about deforestation and agricultural competition.
Three years after agreeing the deal, which liberalises trade between the EU and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, it has yet to be ratified by several European governments.
Some capitals had hoped that the summit, held under Spain's tenure in the rotating presidency of the EU, would bring new momentum on the Mercosur deal.
But diplomats from both blocs were clear that Monday's talks would be an arena for discussion, and no breakthrough on trade was expected.
A senior Spanish diplomat told reporters in Brussels that EU-CELAC "will be a political summit, not a negotiating summit".
- Amazon deforestation -
And Gustavo Pandiani, Argentina's undersecretary for Latin American affairs, predicted "consultations and political dialogue, about broad political lines.
"We are not going to talk about tariffs," he said.
"Someone announced four years ago that we had an agreement, and now we're still discussing it. So, it's likely that we didn't have an agreement then."
The first signs of trouble for the trade deal came under Brazil's former right-wing populist government, with then-president Jair Bolsonaro unleashing a wave of agricultural development in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro -- an admirer of US President Donald Trump -- has now been replaced by a leftist with better green credentials, Lula da Silva, but Europe's relief was short-lived.
Brazil under Lula has proclaimed itself "neutral" in Russia's war against Ukraine, and has pushed back against Europe's bid to attach rules against deforestation to the Mercosur trade pact.
"I welcome Brazil's re-emergence as a major actor on the global stage," von der Leyen said.
In 2020, the European Union adopted its so-called Green Deal, which was not aimed at Latin America in particular, but binds EU trade deals to tougher environmental standards.
In March, the EU presented a set of proposals to update the trade deal, including binding limits on deforestation, with trade consequences -- triggering Brazil's anger.
"We are back into government in order to put Brazil once again as a protagonist in the international arena," Lula said, at a brief pre-summit appearance with von der Leyen.
"We want to discuss the climate issue," he added. "The energy and climate transition is now a priority for our government."
And if the summit is unlikely to unblock the trade deal, the leaders may also struggle to find common ground on broader international issues.
Europe wants the 33 CELAC countries to sign up to a statement supporting Ukraine and condemning Russia's actions since its 16-month-old all-out invasion.
- Slavery reparations? -
Brazil, however, has argued that Kyiv and Moscow share responsibility for the conflict, and Cuba and Venezuela have remained traditional Russian allies.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed summits including the Arab League, the African Union and the G7 by video link -- but has been barred from EU-CELAC.
Delegates had not agreed language on the conflict ahead of the talks and also remained deadlocked on a demand that Europe go further in accepting responsibility for the slave trade.
Caribbean countries, backed by Mexico, wanted language endorsing claims of reparations for countries that still suffer the harm from the historic trans-Atlantic trade.
Talks are ongoing on a formula that would reflect the UN-brokered 2001 Durban Declaration, under which states rejected racism and promised investment in communities of African descent.
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