Bachelet inaugurates 1st Latin American Workshop on Social Cohesion of Chilean Senate and EUROsoCIAL

The objective of this First Latin American Workshop on Social Cohesion is to strengthen a shared Latin American perspective on the challenges of social cohesion and to exchange viewpoints and experiences in the interest of building a common regional agenda. Michelle Bachelet, President of the Republic, went to the Former National Congress Building of Chile to inaugurate this event organized by the Chilean Senate and EUROsociAL, the FIIAPP-managed European Union programme for social cohesion in Latin America.

The country’s highest authority emphasized that “the question of social cohesion has become inescapable”. “We see it in the discussions spurring reflection Europe in these weeks, in President Obama’s speech a couple of days ago and in the impact of the work of Thomas Piketty, who just visited Chile, which place inequality at the centre of the economic debate”, reflected the Chilean Head of State.

Bachelet had words of thanks for the organizing institution and recalled that in her first government she hosted the Ibero-American Summit on Social Cohesion, which brought together elected officials and ministers from Ibero-American countries to address the challenges of poverty and inequality, as well as access to essential social rights. In this period, she explained, “Latin America has demonstrated a desire to combat social exclusion. Poverty has been declining in a sustained manner. We have met, ahead of schedule, the Millennium Development Goals in terms of overcoming extreme poverty and the worst forms of exclusion”.

The First Latin American Workshop on Social Cohesion continues this week in Santiago, Chile, organized around two sessions, one on reforms aimed at quality of democracy and social cohesion, and another on proposals for inclusive and sustainable development based on themes such as taxation, the environment and policies for social cohesion such as social protection, employment and education.