03/07/2014
During the meeting held by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on 30th June in Paris under the umbrella of Development Week, the potential of EUROsociAL, the financed by the European Commission and FIIAPP-led programme for social cohesion in Latin America, was on display as an example of an innovative cooperation programme between the European Union (EU) and Latin America.
Inmaculada Zamora (centro), directora de EUROsociAL, en el encuentro de París.Inmaculada Zamora (centre), Director of EUROsociAL, at the Paris meeting
The purpose of this meeting was to address the evolution of the relationship between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of political, economic and social challenges that make it necessary to tackle structural reforms and implement adequate public policies. In this context, the relationship between the two regions is moving from traditional cooperation to the more horizontal and flexible model of peer-to-peer learning.
During this debate, in which prominent individuals from both regions participated, the case of EUROsociAL was brought up as a laboratory for this new relationship and a catalyst for change in political reform processes.
Participants like Jolita Butkeviciene, Director for the European Commission’s Directorate General of Development and Cooperation for Latin America and the Caribbean; Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of CEPAL; Clarissa Hardy, international expert and ex-Minister of Planning and Cooperation of Chile, Mario Pezzini, Director of the OECD’s Development Centre, or Benita Ferrero-Waldner, president of the UE-LAC Foundation, highlighted the role of EUROsociAL and its work in Latin America in the area of social cohesion, as well as the organization of new dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, which, in addition to providing important results, point to ways of structuring the future relationship between the two regions.
