The IV Ordinary Meeting of the Board of Governors of the EU-LAC International Foundation was held on 10 June 2020, by telematic means, due to the health measures adopted by the local authorities still in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The Board of Governors is comprised of 62 members: 27 from the EU countries, the United Kingdom, 33 from Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union through its institutions. The EU-LAC Foundation’s Board of Governors oversees the management of the Foundation and ensures that the Foundation is working towards its goals.
This was the first ordinary session of 2021, in which the members of the Board of Governors were able to adopt the decisions and resolutions necessary for the proper operational and programmatic functioning of the Foundation, in accordance with the provisions of the Foundation's Constitutive Agreement, which came into force on 17 May 2019.
The President of the EU-LAC Foundation, Leire Pajín Iraola, and the Executive Director, Dr Adrián Bonilla, presented the strategic vision and the activity reports for the years 2020 and 2021 and respective audits during the meeting. In addition, they reported on the progress of the actions to be carried out in the framework of the transformation of the Foundation into an international organisation.
The members acknowledged the important and very active work of the EU-LAC International Foundation to make visible and promote bi-regional dialogue between the different actors in Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union, despite the challenges caused by the Pandemic during the year 2020.
In the framework of the meeting, the Award Ceremony of the I EU-LAC Essay Contest on the Bi-regional Partnership was held and the winners congratulated: María Victoria Álvarez from the National University of Rosario, Ana Lucía Vidaurre Valdivia and Rodrigo Burgoa Terceros of the Socioeconomic Research Institute of the Bolivian Catholic University and Bahía Agustina Gatti and Valentina Testa of the Siglo 21 University/Argentinean Youth Organisation for the United Nations.
Those present also thanked Ambassador Mauricio Escanero, Head of the Mission of Mexico to the European Union and Co-Chair of the Board of Governors of the EU-LAC Foundation, for his honourable work and commitment to the bi-regional partnership over the past two years, and conveyed their best wishes for his outstanding and prolific future career.
We thank our Co-Presidencies, the European External Action Service (EEAS), and the Presidency Pro Tempore of CELAC and the Embassy of Mexico in Belgium and the European Union, as well as the representatives of the 45 countries of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean that participated in the successful IV Meeting of the Board of Directors of the EU-LAC Foundation.
