FIIAPP programmes, present at the UE-CELAC meeting

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) have met in Brussels prior to the EU-CELAC Summit of Heads of States and Government next autumn. “Building bridges and strengthening our partnership to face global challenges” has been the motto of this meeting chaired by Federica Mogherini, high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Carlos Castaneda, acting foreign minister of El Salvador and current president of CELAC.

In the inaugural speech, Federica Mogherini explained that the EU will continue to support the fight against poverty, as well as supporting innovation, creativity and high quality education, and she stressed that Euro-Latin American cooperation is first and foremost “an association for our people”. In this sense, she has highlighted the investment in gender equality and the fight against organised crime, mentioning two of the programmes managed by FIIAPP: “we have promoted social cohesion through EUROsociAL and citizen security through EL PAcCTO“, she said.

The vice president of the European Commission has also commented that, in the face of the great challenges of our time, “we need international cooperation and partnership to defend our common interests”. Therefore, she clarified that the new model of bi-regional cooperation with Latin America “is not traditional development aid”, but “cooperation with an increasingly stronger continent”. “We are going beyond the old donor-recipient mentality towards a partnership between equals“, she said.

For his part, Carlos Castaneda has highlighted the relevance of the EU-CELAC space to strengthen the bond of friendship and cooperation present between both regions, with “a declaration that reflects the ideals and commitments we share in a wide variety of topics (… ) such as gender equity, security, the fight against drugs, environmental protection, among others”.

Regarding this latter issue, the final declaration has highlighted the EU-CELAC commitment to “promoting measures to prevent, minimise and deal with the damage resulting from climate change” and “optimising existing and future bi-regional cooperation programmes, including EUROCLIMA +“, which is also managed by FIIAPP. In this statement, the interest for “the new security programme on a continental scale has been mentioned again: THE PAcCTO”. Likewise, reference is implicitly made to the COPOLAD, programme, while the Sofia Declaration on a Coordination Mechanism on Drugs is mentioned.

This meeting, which took place in Brussels, brought together 28 representatives from European Union countries and 33 from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.