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The Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (DLAT) has been associated to the Exchange of views with Álvaro Leyva Durán, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, which will take place within the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET):

on Monday 27 November, 17.30-18.30

in SPAAK 3C050

The meetings of the Standing Parliamentary Committees of EuroLat took place in the Senate of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo from 30 October to 2 November 2023.

The Co-presidents of the EuroLat Assembly, Javi López, president of the Delegation of the European Parliament to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, and Amado Cerrud Acevedo, president of the Latin American component, jointly co-chaired the inaugural session on 31 October, which also featured interventions by Faride Raful, vice president of the Senate; Ricardo De los Santos, president of the Senate; Cristina Reyes, president of Parlandino; Mario Colman, president of Parlasur; Silvia Giacoppo, president of Parlatino; and Raquel Peña, Vice president of the government of the Dominican Republic.

The programme of these Eurolat meetings was made up of its four committees, the Executive Bureau, the Working Group on Food Security, the Meeting with Civil Society and the Euro-Latin American Women's Forum.

The Eurolat meetings were framed under three main axes:

- Migration, a topic of great importance in both regions as evidenced by the situation on the border of the Dominican Republic with Haiti.

- Digital and Educational Alliance, where emphasis is placed on important issues of development for our societies such as digital transformation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and where the EU-LAC Digital Alliance launched in Bogotá in March 2023 is valued and the investment agenda planned for the EU-LAC Global Gateway.

- Fight against climate change and its effects, where the EU-LAC Bi-regional Strategic Association can make an important contribution to global cooperation efforts.

The Working Group on food security and combating hunger exchanged views on topics such as 'threats and challenges to food security posed by climate change'.

These meetings also evaluated the European Union's Global Gateway investment programme established for Latin America and the Caribbean, for an amount of up to 45 billion euros until 2027, which is aimed at achieving the triple transition, digital, green and social, as well as the need to create follow-up and monitoring mechanisms when implementing these investment programmes.

Most of the meetings were webstreamed and could be followed live through links on the individual websites.

The programme of the Eurolat-Santo Domingo meeting can be found below.

For the agendas and documents of each of the meetings, please consult their individual pages.

The meeting also focused on the preparations for the upcoming EuroLat Parliamentary Assembly meetings in Santo Domingo, to be held from 30 October to 2 November 2023.

The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) held its fifteenth meeting in Madrid from 24 to 27 July, one week after the 17-18 July summit meeting of the leaders of the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Brussels. The EuroLat Assembly took place at the seat of the Senate of Spain.

On 24 July, H.M. King Felipe VI of Spain received the Members at the Palace of El Pardo.

Whereas the committees and some working group and fora met on the following day, with the opening session on 26 July, the Assembly was formally inaugurated by speeches given by the President of the Senate, Ander Gil, the President of the Congress of Deputies, Meritxell Batet, the Co-Chairs of EuroLat, MEP Javi López (S&D, ES) and Colombian congressman Óscar Darío Pérez as well as the Acting Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares Bueno.

The EuroLat plenary session took place on 27 July, where reports and recommendations adopted in advance by the various committees and working groups were voted on. Some of the topics included the fight against hate speech, the regulation of digital platforms, the challenges posed by COVID-19 in education and health, access to water, the fight against organised crime as well as on trade negotiations.

The Assembly closed with a formal session on that same day.

The following resolutions were adopted:

• Combating hate speech in the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean
  
• International cooperation and multilateralism face to COVID 19
  
• Digital platforms in the modern economy
  
• The scrutiny of trade negotiations and the evaluation and monitoring of the agreements by parliamentarians
  
• Challenges for the education sector in the face of COVID-19 and the post-pandemic: guaranteeing quality education for all
  
• Bi-regional cooperation for the strengthening of health systems, for the access and distribution of vaccines and for scientific research to face pandemics
  
• Challenges to ensure the human right to water
  
• The fight against organized crime in the EU and Latin America (recommendation)