Madrid, July 23 (EFE). – Lawmakers from Europe and Latin America will hold a dialogue on the common challenges of both regions starting tomorrow, Monday, in Madrid, and will also analyze the outcome of the recent European Union-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) Summit in Brussels.
Until July 27, during the fifteenth Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), 150 parliamentarians – 75 Europeans and 75 Latin Americans – will debate challenges in issues such as security, crime, education or human rights, as well as women and the importance of the Spanish language in the media and its dissemination in separate forums dedicated to these two issues.
The women’s forum will take place on the 25th and the meeting with Latin American civil society on Spanish the following day, the European Parliament’s office in Spain reported.
European and Latin American parliamentarians will be sworn in by King Felipe VI on Monday. received an audience at the El Pardo Palace near Madrid.
The EuroLat Assembly will take place in the Spanish Senate and at its opening on Wednesday 26th, the then President-in-Office of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the House of Lords, Ander Gil will intervene; the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Meritxell Batet, and the Co-Presidents of EuroLat, the Spaniard Javi López and the Colombian Óscar Darío Pérez.
The plenary session of the EuroLat Assembly will take place on Thursday 27th. Reports and recommendations prepared earlier on Tuesday 25th by the various commissions and working groups that make up EuroLat will be discussed and voted on.
The assembly is expected to end with a speech by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.
During the meeting, it is planned to elect Panamanian Amado Cerrud Acevedo, President of the Parlacen, as the new co-president of the Assembly’s Latin American component, to replace Colombian Pérez.
The two EuroLat Co-Chairs attended the EU-Celac Summit on 17-18 July in Brussels, the first since 2015, where they carried the assembly’s message to promote bi-regional trade with the conclusion of pending agreements, to deepen human rights and to strive for an international order based on rules and not force.
In their message to the leaders of the summit, the parliamentarians also advocated regulating meetings between the leaders in order to strengthen the strategic link between the two blocs. They stressed the “fundamental role” of press freedom while calling for action to be taken in the face of the “alarming deterioration” in the situation of the LGTBIQ community and against xenophobia.
They also reminded the EU and Celac governments of the importance of strengthening the legal and institutional capacities of the legislative chambers and the judiciary to effectively combat impunity and consolidate high-quality democracies.
EuroLat was founded in 2006 as the parliamentary successor to the Bi-regional Strategic Association and meets once a year in plenary session, most recently in April 2022 in Buenos Aires. EFE
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