Since 2005, the Permanent Secretariat has been analyzing the status of the economic relations between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the European Union (EU) and has supported the Member States in their preparatory process preceding the latest bi-regional Summits.

As foreseen in the Work Programme for the year 2010, the Regional Meeting: “Economic Relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union and the VI Bi-regional Summit in Madrid” was held on 25 and 26 February 2010, with the participation of representatives of the Member States and various organizations of the region.

In the conclusions and recommendations adopted by the Member States during the meeting, participants raised the need to continue with the analysis and the work on the bi-regional economic and commercial relations, and to make progress towards the design of consensus-based proposals with a regional scope in order to enhance and strengthen such relations. The latter gained special relevance due to the current situation, characterized by the recession process – with likely implications in the medium and long term – faced by some European economies, which has had negative impacts on the evolution of the global economy.

In view of the above, the Member States agreed to conduct a Regional Meeting to evaluate the results of the recent LAC-EU Summit held in Madrid in May 2010, the economic prospects for the European nations and their probable impacts on reciprocal relations with Latin American and Caribbean countries, as set forth in the Work Programme of SELA for this year.