After eight years without the bi-regional forum, the meeting of heads of state and government returns with topics on the agenda such as combating climate change, ecological transition, digital transformation, defending human rights, peace, innovation and tackling inequalities.
These are pressing questions, no doubt, but recent history casts doubt on the dominance that the North has imposed on the South, which is hardest hit by the ills sweeping humanity.
For two days, heads of state and government from 60 countries, 33 from Celac and 27 from the EU, and more than a billion people will have the opportunity to find a common way to tackle the challenges.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, will chair the debates in his capacity as President Pro Tempore of Celac.
If the EU is ready to put aside the impositions and behaviors reminiscent of colonialism and neo-colonialism, it must show it, and indeed it has signaled just the opposite.
The Europeans organized before the III. Summit held a bi-regional civil society forum on July 13-14, where they chose the guests, the speakers and the topics, drawing criticism for the lack of transparency and consensus.
In statements to Prensa Latina, Belgian MEP Marc Botenga called for a meeting that would allow equal relations to develop.
“We are facing an EU that is trying to get its way, policies that defend the interests of multinationals rather than promoting equal and winner-to-winner relationships,” he commented.
According to Botenga, the EU ruling class often takes paternalistic positions, far removed from respect for sovereignty and the principle of mutual benefit.
There is an urgent need to reverse this vision, which is why the people’s summit is important, he said, referring to the forum that will be held in parallel at the Free University of Brussels.
The MEP stressed that social movements, trade unions and other actors from European, Latin American and Caribbean civil society will join forces at this meeting so that the desire for rapprochement between peoples prevails.
Brazilian landless activist Rodrigo Suñe viewed the popular summit as a meeting to monitor and pressure the leaders gathered in the other forum to defend the bonds of respect for sovereignty and independence.
“We do not accept any further relations that subject our region to a neo-colonial past, so our social movements summit is relevant,” the member of the Secretariat of the International Assembly of Peoples told Prensa Latina.
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