José Manuel Barroso, President of the EC, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC, Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister and President in office of the Council, participated in the 6th EU/ Latin America and the Caribbean Summit (UE/ALC), which was held in Madrid for three days and gathered the Heads of State and Government of the 33 countries of Latin America and the Carribean and the 27 Member States of the EU. On the occasion of the Summit, a certain number of specific topics were addressed with the sub-regions: the forum of the Caribbean "Cariforum" (which consists of 13 island states of the Caribbean, as well as the coastal States: Belize, Guyana and Suriname) and "Mercosur" (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) on 17 May, the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Equator and Peru) and Central America on 19 May. Association Agreements with the EU were also signed with Mexico and Chile. The EU is a major investor in the region and the second commercial partner of Latin America.