Civil society organisations elaborate an advocacy roadmap ahead of the 2025 CELAC-EU Summit
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Global Europe
From 7 to 9 April 2025, we joined over 40 networks and platforms, representing more than 800 organisations from Latin American, Caribbean, and European civil society, in a gathering aimed at reinforcing the group’s common vision and developing an advocacy roadmap ahead of the CELAC–EU Summit in November 2025 in Colombia.
Following the EU–CELAC Summit – the regional summit between the EU and the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states – held in Brussels in 2023, relations between Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union gained renewed momentum. It has since been announced that the fourth CELAC–EU Summit will take place in Colombia on 9–10 November 2025. The Summit will focus on priorities including trade and investment, the green and digital transitions, and the joint fight against organised crime, corruption, drug and human trafficking.
In this context, civil society organisations (CSOs) convened in Brussels to strengthen their shared vision and elaborate a coordinated advocacy roadmap in preparation for the 2025 Summit. As an outcome of the meeting, participants agreed on a work plan and roadmap that includes stakeholder mapping and the identification of key advocacy milestones.
The gathering also provided an opportunity for dialogue with decision-makers and other key actors engaged in EU–CELAC relations. Notable participants included:
- Félix Fernández-Shaw, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean (DG INTPA)
- Heike Schneider, Deputy Head of Division (EEAS)
- Leire Pajín, MEP, Vice-Chair of EuroLat and member of the DEVE Committee
- Laura Oroz, Director of Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean (AECID)
- Raquel Coello-Cremades, Policy Advisor on Macroeconomics and the Global Care Economy (UN Women)
The group will move forward with the implementation of the advocacy roadmap in the lead-up to the CELAC–EU Summit in November 2025 in Colombia. This will include coordinated participation in key events and political processes relevant to EU–CELAC relations.
Additionally, the group will prepare and submit its application to participate in the Civil Society Forum, which is expected to take place in November 2025 as part of the official Summit preparations.
Background notes
The regional summit between the EU and the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states (CELAC) bring together European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders to strengthen relations between both regions. These summits are the main forums for dialogue and cooperation between Europe, and Latin American and Caribbean states.
These summit meetings represent an extension of the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) summits that had been held since 1999. In 2010, at the summit held in Mexico, 33 LAC countries decided to merge the Rio Group and the CALC (Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Development and Cooperation) into one forum: the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).