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The items on the agenda included:

- Programme of activities of the Assembly for 2025, with special attention to the issues to be discussed at the next EU-CELAC Summit to be held in Colombia in the last quarter of the year

- Preparatory work for the meetings of the bodies of the EuroLat Assembly to be held in the first half of 2025

The recent participation of EuroLat Co-President Gabriel Mato (EPP, ES) in the XXIX Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government in Cuenca (Ecuador) reaffirms the commitment of the EuroLat Parliamentary Assembly to bi-regional cooperation on key issues such as social inclusion, sustainable development, and innovation. The presence of the EuroLat Co-President at all summit events with Heads of State and Government underscores the significant role that EuroLat and the European Parliament play in revitalizing relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Despite the low level of participation, which reflects the geopolitical complexity of the region, it is essential to maintain this dialogue platform. We share many things and must work together. However, it is evident that we need to reflect on how to improve a multilateral system that is highly necessary but increasingly falling into irrelevance."

In the context of a challenging global environment, the summit highlighted the need for strong collaboration between Latin America and Europe.

"We must address common issues such as economic growth, reducing inequality, security and combating organized crime, trade, environmental challenges, and the defense of democratic values. These goals can only be achieved through joint initiatives and a renewed multilateralism," added Mato.

During the summit, organized by the Ibero-American General Secretariat and the Ecuadorian authorities, the need to advance inclusive policies that strengthen access to job opportunities, particularly for young people, and foster a more sustainable and fair economy was emphasized. The participation of the EuroLat Co-President also served to reinforce the role of parliamentary diplomacy, facilitating ongoing dialogue and contributing to the EU-CELAC roadmap towards 2025. The EuroLat Assembly will continue advocating for the strengthening of the strategic partnership and leveraging initiatives such as the EU's Global Gateway Agenda, aimed at promoting sustainable and digital investments in the region.

At its constitutive meeting on 30 September 2024, the Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (DLAT) elected the following Bureau members:

Chair: Gabriel MATO (EPP, Spain)

1st Vice-President: Leire PAJÍN (S&D, Spain)

2nd Vice-President: Herbert DORFMANN (EPP, Italy)

3rd Vice-President: Ana MIRANDA PAZ (Greens/EFA, Spain)

4th Vice-President: Carlo FIDANZA (ECR, Italy)

5th Vice-President: Isilda GOMES (S&D, Portugal)

6th Vice-President: Inese VAIDERE (EPP, Latvia)

7th Vice-President: Elena NEVADO DEL CAMPO (EPP, Spain)

In a future meeting of the DLAT delegation, new Co-Chairs of the four committees, the Working Group and the two fora will be nominated.

On 21 and 22 March 2024, high-level representatives from the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean met in Brussels to enhance the partnership between the two regions on human development and health, with a particular focus on inclusive human development and the equitable access to health products. More information can be found here.

The regional Team Europe Initiative "Inclusive and Equitable Societies in LAC" was officially launched on Thursday 21 by the European Commissioner of International Partnerships, Ms. Jutta Urpilainen. As co-chair of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), Mr. Javi López also participated in this launch, discussing the work carried out by the European Parliament and EuroLat in human development and health. Notably, EuroLat adopted a resolution on bi-regional cooperation for the strengthening of health systems and for the access to vaccines during the EuroLat plenary of Madrid in July 2023. Other notable work includes a resolution on bi-regional cooperation and multilateralism in the face of COVID-19 and the ongoing work on the bi-regional pact for care.

Other distinguished speakers in this panel included the Minister of Health of Honduras, Ms. Carla Paredes, as representative of the CELAC Pro Tempore Presidency and Ms. Eva Granados, Secretary for International Cooperation of Spain.

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 was 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 was 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.

All the meetings can be watched 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 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.

For this purpose, the Eurolat Bureau agreed at its Meeting on 3 July 2023 on a joint Message of the Eurolat Co-Chairs, Javi López and Oscar Dário Pérez, to address this summit.

The message focuses on the relaunch of EU-CELAC relations, the importance of concluding pending bilateral trade and association agreements, on revitalizing multilateralism, the strict compliance with international law and respect for the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, on stepping up the efforts to overcome the consequences of the multiple crisis (inflation, food security, health, migration and energy) and intensifying measures to counter climate change.

The two Co-Chairs highlight the importance of regularly holding EU-CELAC Summits of Heads of State and Government to strengthen the Bi-regional Strategic Association on common themes and priorities that allow improving the lives of citizens.

On the occasion of their participation the third European Union (EU) - Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit in Brussels on 17 and 18 July 2023, the Co-Presidents of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), Javi López and Óscar Darío Pérez, would like to express the following considerations:

We welcome that, after eight years, the third EU-CELAC Summit is being held with strong participation from Heads of State and Government, demonstrating the strong commitment of both regions to profoundly strengthen bilateral relations.

We reiterate the importance of holding regular EU-CELAC summits of Heads of State and Government in order to strengthen the Bi-Regional Strategic Partnership as regards common topics and priorities to improve citizens' lives.

In this regard, we welcome the agreement to hold summits every two years, with the next summit taking place in the CELAC region in 2025, as well as the establishment of a permanent coordination mechanism between the EU and CELAC to ensure continuity and follow-up between meetings.

We reaffirm our support for the various regional integration processes in Latin America and Europe as a basic principle of the Bi-Regional Strategic Partnership, namely the Association Agreement between the European Union and Central America, the Association Agreements with Mexico and Chile and the Association Agreement between the EU and Mercosur.

[...]

The last meeting of the Eurolat Executive Bureau took place on 3 July 2023 in a semi-hybrid format.

Topics for discussion included the appointment of new Vice-Presidents, the endorsement of the plenary agenda of Eurolat Madrid as well as a consideration and adoption of the message to the EU-CELAC summit.

This message to the third EU-Summit has been published in the Communiqués and CELAC-EU Summits section.