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The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation organised, together with the EU-LAC Foundation, the course 'EUROPEAN UNION-LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN RELATIONS: A RENEWED AGENDA AND A PROGRAMME FOR RECOVERY IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE SDGs', which took place from 19 to 23 July 2021.
Even before the pandemic, Latin America and the Caribbean were experiencing their slowest period of economic growth in seven decades after years of high economic growth. The Covid-19 health emergency has aggravated the situation by increasing extreme poverty to levels not seen in the last decade. It has also particularly affected women, leading to a setback of more than 10 years in the situation of women in terms of gender equality and loss of opportunities and access to the labour market. There are also major inequalities and a strong dependence on the outside world in terms of health, low access to the internet, and climate change is having a major impact on the region. In addition, there is a lack of funding to address the crisis.
This situation leads to occasional scenarios of political and social uncertainty in some countries in the region. Historical experience, at the global level, has illustrated that economic and social crises have political consequences.
The preservation of democratic governance and the protection of equal access to services and inclusion policies, and the promotion of a new social pact seem to be central at this time.
This course sought to analyse the current situation and seek responses within the framework of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs as a framework for socio-economic co-development, to respond to the challenges facing the region. Possible options for working on an agenda for the recovery of Latin America, within the framework of the SDGs, were explored, and the development of a renewed agenda in European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean relations that contributes to processing these common challenges were examined, also taking into account the return to multilateralism, and the development of initiatives linked to climate change and digital development as possible valid instruments for the management of global problems valid for the relationship between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.
This course was part of the Campus Yuste programme, included in the 22nd edition of the International Summer-Autumn Courses of the University of Extremadura, with the collaboration of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the EUROAMÉRICA Foundation, and is also part of the Conference on the Future of Europe.
