In the framework of the Latin American and Caribbean Week in Paris, representatives of the EU-LAC Foundation participated in the 10th Annual Symposium with the Institut des Amériques (IdA), the French Agency for Development (AFD) and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France (MEAE), and in the co-organised event “Geopolitics of the Energy Transition: Which associations for EU-LAC?”.
Throughout this official mission to Paris from June 7 to June 10, the EU-LAC Foundation strengthened its relationship with the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Development Agency (AFD) and other bilateral partners such as the OECD and academic representatives. Relevant actors came together during the two-day Symposium “Education, digital technology, social cohesion and public policies”, which aimed to discuss links between education, digitalisation, social cohesion, and public policies from the issues of soft power that guide public policies to the challenges of inclusion and the professions of the future, without forgetting the economic factors necessary for the development of innovations.
The EU-LAC Foundation’s Senior Programme Manager, Ernesto Jeger, intervened in the opening session at the Senate which also counted with speeches from Ives Saint –Geours, President of the IdA, Marie Pierre Bourzai, Director of the Latin America Department at the AFD, Jean-Francois Pactet, Deputy Director of the Directorate for Culture, Higher Education and Research and the Network (DGM/DCERR) at the MEAE. During his presentation, Mr Jeger highlighted the question of how the European Union and Latin American and Caribbean countries can take advantage of the changes provoked by the pandemic crisis and create incentives for further digitisation while addressing the deficits in access, use and mastery of new technologies in homes, schools, and workplaces.
On June 10, the EU-LAC Foundation also participated in the event “Geopolitics of the Energy Transition: Which associations for EU-LAC?”, co-organised jointly with CRIES and Le Grand Continent. The event was selected in the framework of the Foundation’s V. Annual Call for the co-organisation of events on topics relevant to the bi-regional partnership and convened discussions on the geopolitical dimension of the energy transition and its implications for partnerships between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Additionally, during the mission in France, the EU-LAC Foundation held meetings with several relevant actors and partners of the organisation, such as Marie Pierre Bourzai, Director of the Latin America Department at AFD, Philippe Bastelica, Chief Economist of the Latin America Department at AFD, Diana Burgos from the MEAE, and representatives from IdA. They also met with Florence Pinot de Villechenon, Director of the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche Amérique Latine Europe (CERALE), and representatives from the OECD Development Centre during the 14th edition of the International Economic Forum on Latin America and the Caribbean, thus enabling them to further discussions on further institutional collaborations.
