The Latin America – European Union Forum: Dialogue and Cooperation at the Local Level

On March 8, a Latin America – European Union Forum: Dialogue and Cooperation at the Local Level will be held at the Foreign Ministry. Today, countries conduct their international relations while facing a significant decrease in cooperation funds at the same time that South-South cooperation is increasing. In addition, the role of local governments in development is recognized as they seek to play a bigger part in the most important discussions of the international agenda.

The forum—organized by the Foreign Ministry’s Political Coordination Department in coordination with the Matías Romero Institute, the European Commission, and the Mexico City government as coordinator of the AL-LAs project, a European-Latin American cooperation alliance among cities—aims to:

• Contrast and compare the positions of Latin America and the European Union on international issues that have a local impact such as urban and regional development.
• Analyze the role of international networks of local governments from both regions in discussing the priority issues on the global agenda.
• Enhance the role of decentralized cooperation as a way of bringing Latin America and the European Union closer together.

Senior officials from Latin American and European cities and representatives from the most important networks of local governments in the region will attend the forum.