PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart will participate in the Second European Union – Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit, which will be held on June 10 and 11 in Belgium.
Stuart’s delegation will include Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean; Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Sonja Welch; Barbados’ Ambassador to Belgium, Samuel Chandler; and Barbados’ Ambassador to Venezuela, Sandra Phillips.
The theme of the Summit, Shaping our common future: working for prosperous, cohesive and sustainable societies for our citizens, is aimed at promoting sustainable development based on social and environmental synergies and stimulating economic growth that is environmentally friendly and socially responsible.
This high-level meeting is expected to reconfirm the strategic nature of the EU-CELAC partnership and give guidance on working together in various areas, including science, innovation and technology, environment, climate change, energy, education, and employment to promote social inclusion and cohesion. The Heads are also expected to discuss where they would wish the bi-regional partnership to be in the next 10 years, and underline the importance of EU-CELAC cooperation in a complex and rapidly changing world.
There will also be an EU-CELAC Business Summit on the theme Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean: Promoting inclusive and sustainable growth by enhancing the role of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, on the sidelines of the main Summit.
At the conclusion of the meeting, two outcome documents – A Partnership for the Next Generation and Shaping our Common Future: Working together for Prosperous, Cohesive and Sustainable Societies for our Citizens – will be released.
CELAC was created on December 3, 2011, in Venezuela, with the merger of the Rio Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Development and Integration. It was created to deepen Latin American and Caribbean integration, and consists of 33 sovereign countries in the Americas, representing about 600 million people.
The first EU-CELAC Summit was held in Chile in January 2013. (BGIS)
