Civil society gets on the guest list

European and Latin American leaders renew their commitment to involving civil society in international development discussions.

May 18, 2010, the fifth biannual EU-Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Summit was held in Madrid, Spain.

“We have agreed on the creation of the EU-LAC Foundation, which will be central for the development of our relations also in terms of civil society,” said José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, in a closing statement after the conference.

A memo released by the European Commission said that during the 2010 Summit an Open Bi-Regional Working Group to discuss and agree on a proposal for the Foundation was set up and that the Commission has pledged €3 million towards the project up until 2013.

Civil society actors have reacted warmly to the announcement of this new Foundation.

 “It would be hoped that the EU-LAC Foundation will provide an opportunity to involve civil society and the social economy in a range of activities to support and foster greater social cohesion,” said Dr. Emma Clarence of the OECD LEED Centre, an expert on social exclusion and the role of the social economy. 

EU-LAC civil society meets

As a precursor to the Summit a three day meeting, from May 5 to 7, was held between Europe and Latin America’s main civil society actors.

It was organized by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and chaired by its president Mario Sepi (a VitaEurope blogger).

The EESC organized the meeting of civil society as a way to insure that it would have a voice on the key issues at the EU-LAC Summit.

The objective of the conference was to discuss civil society’s role in driving the EU-LAC action plan and its role in advising government on policy.

One-hundred and fifty social actors met. They followed the EU-LAC issue agenda and at the conclusion of the meeting they drafted a final declaration which was forwarded to the EU-LAC summit.   

The commitment by the EU-LAC leaders to create the EU-LAC foundation can be taken as a positive sign that the voices of civil society are being heard by their government counterparts.

Social cohesion

A main focus at both the May 5 and May 18 meetings was the issue of social cohesion.

This means that international leaders and social actors are working together to try and improve access to health care, infrastructure, education to all citizens in Latin America and to reduce social exclusion of migrants from Latin America in Europe.

Disparities and inequalities in Latin America are directly linked to migrant and social exclusion issues in Europe, because the former means more people choose to immigrate to Europe.  In 2008 fifteen percent of migrants to the EU were from the Americas, most came from countries like Ecuador and Colombia.

Civil society, in the form of NGOs, help provide lacking social services in many Latin American countries. It also creates programs, through social enterprises, to help combat social exclusion of immigrants.

“What is needed to enable [civil society] to play that role is adequate and appropriate support and resources,” added Clarence.

Over the years, three tools have been created to increase civil society’s involvement in dealing with social and development issues: the Latin America Investment Facility (LAIF), EUROsocial and most recently the above mentioned EU-LAC foundation.

Other big news

The big news announced at the conference was a free trade agreement signed by the EU and Central America. Barroso said that this deal will increase annual exports by €2.6 billion for Central America and by €2.4 billion for the EU.

According to the EU Observer, negotiators ultimately agreed to set specific quotas for cheese and milk powder from Europe and for bananas, beef and rice from Central America.