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Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe prepare Fourth Joint Summit
On 18 - 19 July 2005, a workshop-seminar called From Guadalajara to Vienna: Guidelines for the Fourth European Union/Latin America and the Caribbean Summit, will be held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Staff from governments and regional bodies, academics and members of civil society from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean will participate in the seminar, to develop guidelines for the contents and format of the Fourth European Union/Latin America and the Caribbean Summit, to be held in May 2006 in Vienna, Austria. José Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of this regional United Nations commission, will open the seminar on Monday 18 July at 9:00 am in the Raúl Prebisch Conference Room at the ECLAC building (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura, Santiago- Chile) Gonzalo Arenas, President of the Latin America Centre for Relations with Europe (Centro Latinoamericano para las Relaciones con Europa, CELARE); José María Beneyto, of the European Studies Institute (Instituto de Estudios Europeos), University of San Pablo-CEU, Madrid; Francisco Cumplido, President of the Miguel de Cervantes University; Wolfgang Plasa, Chief of the European Community Delegation in Chile; Richard Wilkinson, the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Chile; and Walter Howadt, the Austrian Ambassador to Chile, will also attend. The inaugural speeches will explore the prospects for European and Latin American integration and will be given by José Luis Machinea, who will speak on "The Building of a Latin American Project" and José María Beneyto, who will refer to "The Europe to Come." These joint European Union/Latin American and Caribbean (EU/LAC) summits began in 1999, when both regions started a formal Euro-Latin American dialogue among chiefs of state and governments. The first summit took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1999 and the second in Madrid, in 2002. The Third EU/LAC Summit was held in Guadalajara Mexico in May 2004. There, new commitments were made and political alliances reinforced through common positions on multilateralismus, social cohesion and regional integration. 14 July 2005 A preliminary agenda is available in Spanish on the CELARE web page. |
