EU INTERESTED IN STRENGTHENING LINKS WITH CELAC

Havana, May 29, 2015 (PL).- The 2nd Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU) hopes to consolidate the links between the two regions and bring positions closed on issues of the international agenda, EU official said.

The idea is to see how we can update the relations in the light of important changes occurred in the past few years in Europe and in Latin America and the Caribbean, said in a videoconference Christian Leflfer, Director General for the Americas of the European Foreign Service.

He highlighted the economic dynamism and social achievements registered in Latin America in the past 20 years.

On the Summit CELAC-EU, to be held in Brussels on June 10-11, he recalled that the two regions group 61 countries with a population of over one billion people.

Now, the EU is the main foreign investor in CELAC and its second trade partner.

The official announced that one of the agreements expected to be achieved during the summit is an understanding between the bloc and the member countries of CELAC to construct a fiber optic connection for communications and computer science.

During the videoconference, held simultaneously in 18 delegations in Latin America and the Caribbean, participants also discussed the need for greater cooperation to confront global challenges like climate change, drug trafficking and accomplish the post-2015 development agenda.

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