Group photo of the participants at the meetings of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly in Mexico City, held from 26 to 28 May 2026 © Senate of the Republic of Mexico (2026).
The EU-LAC Foundation participated in the meeting of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), held from 26 to 28 May in Mexico City, bringing together members of the European Parliament and parliamentarians from Latin America and the Caribbean to strengthen bi-regional political dialogue.
This year’s edition held special significance as it marked the 20th anniversary of EuroLat, highlighting two decades of parliamentary cooperation between both regions in support of a strategic partnership based on shared values, multilateralism, and democracy.
During the opening session, Mexico’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, underlined the importance of pluralism and the spirit of unity in bi-regional dialogue to advance towards a closer, more dynamic, and far-reaching partnership. For his part, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Javier López, stressed that in a context of growing global fragmentation, the alliance between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean can become one of the key pillars of democratic stability in the 21st century.
The EU-LAC Foundation was represented by its Executive Director, Alberto Brunori, who took part in the Working Group on Security, Terrorism, Hybrid Threats, and the Fight against Organised Crime and New Forms of Criminality.
Working Group on Security, Terrorism, Hybrid Threats, and the Fight against Organised Crime and New Forms of Criminality © Andean Parliament.
In his intervention, Brunori highlighted the progress achieved following the recent CELAC–EU Summit in Santa Marta, where citizen security was reaffirmed as a shared priority and the Joint Declaration of the EU–LAC Alliance for Citizen Security was adopted. He also stressed the need to promote comprehensive approaches involving governments, the private sector, academia, and civil society to address security challenges in both regions.
Among the key priorities identified to strengthen bi-regional cooperation against organised crime, Brunori underlined the potential of artificial intelligence to enhance analytical and institutional intelligence capabilities, the importance of reinforcing cooperation in financial intelligence to combat money laundering, the development of smart ports and public-private partnerships to protect logistics chains, and the need to strengthen information exchange and institutional interoperability.
The Executive Director also highlighted the work carried out by the EU-LAC Foundation over the past year in the field of citizen security, including specialised dialogues held in Hamburg and Lima on port security, synthetic drugs, and customs cooperation, whose outcomes have been translated into policy recommendations to foster more effective cooperation between Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
He further announced that the EU-LAC Foundation will organise a new multi-stakeholder dialogue event in Brussels on 15 June, within the framework of the European Commission’s Week against Organised Crime, continuing efforts to advance bi-regional coordination on citizen security.
The EuroLat meeting also addressed other key priorities for both regions, including the impact of artificial intelligence on democracy, the protection of minors in digital environments, environmental resilience, economic and trade cooperation, migration, human rights, and gender equality.