The European Commission has announced funding for new programmes worth more than €74 million to help improve the living conditions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAC). This announcement was made on Wednesday 26 October on the sidelines of the joint ministerial meeting in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (see EUROPE 11647).
Programmes for the Caribbean are worth just under €44 million. A total of €10 million will be allocated to a programme for re-establishing basic services, such as access to drinking water, following the destruction caused in the Dominican Republic in August 2015 by the tropical storm, Erika. Sums of €14 million and €11 million will be respectively earmarked for the Dominican Republic to help promote more efficient public administration and greater competitiveness amongst small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.
In Latin America, almost €10 million out of €30 million in aid announced by the EU, will be allocated to the EL PACTO security programme. This covers the whole criminal justice chain (police, prison and justice systems) in no fewer than 18 countries, As well as “South-South” cooperation in agriculture and private sector development, more than €20 million will be allocated to reforming and diversifying the Guyana sugar industry. A total of €3 million will also go towards reducing poverty and social inequality in Paraguay, through the setting up of a social protection system
The European Commission welcomes the introduction of these new programmes which strengthen the important relations the EU has been developing with CELAC since 1999. In 2016, the EU will have earmarked €710 million in support of programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean.
EU/LAC Foundation. In Santo Domingo, ministers also signed the intergovernmental agreement conferring the EU-LAC Foundation with the status of an international organisation. This organisation is chaired by the former president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández, who has sought to build links between the civil societies of the two regional entities. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)