The Caribbean in the European Union-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Partnership

Historically, the relationship between Latin America and the Anglophone Caribbean had been termed “distant”. Although the warming of relations started several decades before, the 1990s – the post-Cold War era – saw an intensification of engagement, fuelled by the imperatives of globalisation and the need for collaboration in an increasingly interdependent world. The strongest indication of the two sub-regions’ commitment to collaboration thus far was the establishment of CELAC in 2011.
In 2013, CELAC became the organism through which the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region relates to the European Union (EU) in a strategic partnership, established between the two parties since 1999. A strengthened CELAC is therefore necessary for enhancing the Bi-regional Partnership. Some of CELAC’s objectives are to promote regional integration, strengthen regional unity, and develop ties of solidarity and cooperation among LAC countries. The aim of this study revolves around achieving the above objectives, which inform the main research question: how can the participation of the Caribbean in CELAC be strengthened in order to boost CELAC and the Bi-regional Strategic Partnership? The Caribbean, in the case of the study is defined as CARIFORUM. However, we note that challenges of relationsbetween the Caribbean and Latin America are being experienced predominantly by CARICOM states, the non – Latin members of the Caribbean sub-grouping. As the Caribbean relates to the EU in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, the study also examines the ACP-EU relationship vis-à-vis the Caribbean’s engagement in CELAC and the Bi-regional Strategic Partnership.
Based on the work of Sandler (2010), the study adopts the view that the Caribbean’s participation in CELAC is likely to be enhanced and sustained on the basis of the challenges that it shares with Latin America, and proposes the following areas for collaboration: poverty and inequality,crime and security, food security, non-communicable diseases, financial vulnerability and governance and transparency.