EU–LAC Foundation

The European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Summit (EU-LAC Summit), a bi-annual meeting of Heads of State and Government of the European, Latin American and Caribbean countries, agreed at its VI Summit (Madrid 2010) to create the EU-LAC Foundation "as a useful tool for strengthening our bi-regional partnership and as a means of triggering debate on common strategies and actions.[1] The EU-LAC Foundation began its operations in November 2011 in the city of Hamburg.[2]

The countries of the EU and CELAC and the EU itself constitute its 62 members. The Foundation was entrusted with the mission of strengthening and promoting this bi-regional relationship, enhancing its visibility and fostering active participation of the respective civil societies. The Foundation is a tool of the EU-LAC partnership and its activities process and its activities seek to feed into the intergovernmental dialogue, in line with the bi-regional Action Plan.

The Foundation has been operating with a transitory status under German civil law, yet the swift ratification of the Agreement establishing the Foundation as an international organisation will allow it to be recognised as a genuine bi-regional organisation.

The presidency and executive director are appointed by the Board of Governors by unanimity for a 4 year term. The Presidency is a "ad honorem" position. In 2011 Benita Ferrero-Waldner, former EU Commissioner, and the peruvian diplomat Jorge Valdez Carillo were appointed respectively as president and executive director, running the Foundation during its first four years in operation.

Since February 2016 the EU-LAC Foundation is presided by former President of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernández. Its Executive Director is the Italian Paola Amadei who has a solid experience in EU diplomacy including in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Members

Latin American and Caribbean nations

Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela

EU Member Nations

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Creation of the EU-LAC Foundation" EU RAPID Press Release, 18/05/2010 (Accessed 15/02/2012).
  2. ↑ "Hamburg is now even more international" HWF Hamburg Business Development Corporation (Accessed 15/02/2012)


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