Once seen as economic conquerors looking for new markets in Latin America, crisis-hit Spain and Portugal are now humbly turning to their former colonies for a helping hand. For the two Iberian countries mired in a deep economic crisis, Latin American markets are no longer just a business boost, but an urgent necessity.
"We are more open than ever to Latin America," Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told an Ibero-American summit in Cadiz on Saturday.
However, there are signs that Latin America is not as interested in trading and investing in Europe as the continent hopes for. And Latin America's emerging economies also have important problems of their own to resolve.
Despite all the talk about co-operation at the Cadiz summit, seven of the 19 Latin American leaders failed to attend. Bolivian President Evo Morales left early. And plans were also made for the summits to be staged only every two years, instead of annually.
In 1991, when the first Ibero-American summit was held, Spanish companies were looking for opportunities whilst helping to modernise a Latin America struggling to recover from the "lost decade" of the 1980s.
But now, Latin America is growing at a rate of more than 3 per cent, while the economies of Spain and Portugal are expected to shrink by 1.5 and 3 per cent respectively this year.
Spanish economic presence in Latin America has so far been dominated by giants such as the telecommunications company Telefonica, the oil firm Repsol or the banks Santander and BBVA.
The summit adopted measures to ease the access of small and medium-sized Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American companies to a market of 550 million people.
"Latin America grows and needs capital and many Spanish companies can offer that," says Juan Carlos Martinez Lazaro from Madrid's IE Business School.
Meanwhile in Latin America, small and medium-sized companies currently make up 99 per cent of all companies, but only contribute about 20 per cent of the region's gross domestic product, according to the OECD and the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC).
The Cadiz summit also called for clearer rules for foreign investors, while Spain and Argentina discussed their ongoing row over Buenos Aires' decision to nationalise the Spanish-controlled oil company YPF.
"Spanish companies know very well which markets are judicially secure and which are not. Many markets offer absolute security, such as Colombia, Peru or Mexico," Martinez Lazaro told dpa.
Latin America's trade with the EU has doubled to 202 billion euros (260 billion dollars) annually since 2004, while EU is the biggest direct investor in the region, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
But some of the Latin American leaders, representing the political left, were sceptical about Europe's sudden enthusiasm to boost trans-Atlantic relations.
Relations must be based on "balance" instead of "subjugation and looting," Morales said in an apparent reference to the colonial and neo-colonial past.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa complained about the way Europe had treated Latin American immigrants, who were put in "prisons" instead of allowed to move around freely.
Latin America has rapidly increased trade in raw materials with China, and Latin American investors are also expected to take more of an interest in their own region and in the United States than in Europe.
In one sign of a growing distance from Spain and Portugal, Latin American countries increased their mutual aid projects by 10 per cent to 586 projects in 2011.
Spanish development aid to the region, meanwhile, dropped from 1 billion dollars to 465 million dollars, under the impact of the economic crisis.
The crisis is beginning to be felt in Latin America as well, with growth slowing from 4.3 per cent in 2011 to an expected 3.2 per cent this year.
And not only does Latin America need growth, but the region with strong regional and class differences faces the even greater challenge of distributing it equitably.
Much of the region's economic power is concentrated in Brazil and Mexico. More than 30 per cent of the Latin American population lives in poverty, according to the OECD - even if poverty levels have gone down considerably in the past decade.
"Europe will come out of the crisis, but in Latin America, it is the foundations of the future that are at stake," the OECD's Mexican chief Angel Gurria said.