Optimism towards consolidation of EU-CELAC ties

Havana, September 13 (RHC) An agenda drawn today by 60 European and Latin American countries hopes to project a roadmap this Friday in Santiago de Compostela, where ministers from both regions will talk.

Sergio Díaz Granados, executive president of the CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighted their hope that it will be a turning point, contrary to what happened that same day (September 15) in 2008 when an international financial crisis broke out.

Like Díaz Granados, the first vice president and acting Minister of Economy of Spain, Nadia Calviño, agreed with Díaz Granados' optimism during the conference European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean: a joint agenda for development.

At Casa de América in Madrid, venue of the event, its director Enrique Ojeda welcomed a large group of ministers, businessmen, diplomats and intellectuals from the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), along with an emblematic figure of culture, the Colombian singer-songwriter Carlos Vives.

Díaz Granados welcomed the boost that will be given in Santiago de Compostela to the relations of the community bloc with CELAC, during the informal meeting of Ministers of Economy and Finance of the European Union, and Latin America.

For her part, Vice President Nadia Calviño described the exchange and agreement that will take place in the capital of Galicia as a momentous step, as part of Spain's efforts as acting president of the 27.

The renowned expert stressed that beyond the speeches, the headlines delve into a substantial agenda, with many issues in common such as the green and digital transformation, picking up the gauntlet of the echoes of the recent G20 summit, and looking with determination at the COP28 summit in the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, highlighted the strategic perspective of strengthening ties between Europe and Latin America, especially in these moments of climatic emergencies -the devastating floods in Libya, the DANAS, earthquakes, the 32 degrees in Buenos Aires in the middle of winter.

The conference at Casa de América marks the threshold of the CAF Board of Directors and the first meeting of Ministers of Economy and Finance of the EU and CELAC Thursday and Friday in Galicia.

Carlos Vives, taking advantage of his concert tour in Spain, joined these events as a motivational element in the understanding that culture must be part of humanity's goals towards a future of prosperity. (Source: PL)