The Diplomat
The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, defended yesterday in Madrid, during the opening of the fifteenth plenary session of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), the creation of an “integral partnership” between the EU and Latin America to “jointly” face the great challenges.
“We have the opportunity to definitively and forever strengthen EU-Latin American relations and jointly face the challenges, because everything we do together, multiplies its effects,” said the minister during the event, held in the Senate Chamber.
According to Albares, the objective of the current Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU is also to become “the Presidency of Latin America in Europe” and, therefore, the EuroLat Assembly “is not an end, it is a means to consolidate a positive agenda and establish a structured dialogue”. In this regard, the Minister recalled the recent Summit of the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held in mid-July in Brussels within the framework of the Spanish Presidency, which marked “the starting point for creating an integral partnership” between the two regions.
At the same event, the President of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, affirmed that both regions believe “in multilateralism as the most effective instrument for coordinating the actions of nations while respecting the values of peace, security and the rule of international law”, and the President of the Senate, Ander Gil, warned that “collective threats” do not stop at the EU and CELAC countries and, therefore, it is necessary to promote “interdependence” between the two regions to “multiply” their capacities in the face of “shared vulnerabilities”.
The EuroLat Assembly
The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) is the parliamentary institution of the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Bi-regional Strategic Partnership and meets in plenary session once a year. The last plenary meeting took place in April 2022 in Buenos Aires. In the course of the Assembly, the 150 members of EuroLat – 75 MEPs and 75 representatives of Latin American and Caribbean parliaments, including Parlatino (Latin American Parliament), Parlandino (Andean Parliament), Parlacen (Central American Parliament), the Parlasur (Mercosur Parliament) and the joint parliamentary committees of Chile and Mexico-will also have the opportunity to evaluate the results and conclusions of the third Summit of leaders of the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held just a week ago in Brussels and the first since 2015.
The activities of the Assembly began this past Monday with an audience at the Palace of El Pardo by King Felipe VI and continued on Tuesday with the meetings of commissions and working groups. Yesterday, in addition to the opening ceremony and the meetings of the Working Group on Food Security and the European Economic and Social Committee with representatives of Latin American Civil Society, concluded with a dinner hosted by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs at Casa de América.
Today, the plenary session of the EuroLat Assembly will be held, in which reports and recommendations prepared by the commissions and working groups on topics such as the fight against hate speech, the regulation of digital platforms, the challenges of COVID-19 in education and health, access to water, the fight against organized crime, trade negotiations and the universal declaration of the rights of nature will be debated and voted on. This will be followed by the closing of the Assembly, with interventions by Ander Gil, the co-president of the European component of EuroLat, MEP Javi Lopez (S&D, Spain), and Amado Cerrud, who will be elected during this Assembly to the position of president of the Latin American component of the EuroLat Assembly.
