EULAC Focus

Work and Equal Opportunities

Giving focus to the cultural, scientific and social dimension of EU-CELAC relations

Where does the EU stand in its relations with Latin America and the Caribbean?

EULAC Focus conducted comprehensive, novel, and far-reaching research on the cultural, scientific, and social relations between Europe and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Thereby we looked into a wide array of past and current cooperation and initiatives, and surveyed the emergence of new strategic topics that were deemed crucial to future cooperation. The research looked into specific topics that, until then, had been analysed in a rather fragmented manner, and developed an overall and coherent understanding of the importance of the cultural, scientific, and social dimensions of the wider EU-CELAC partnership.

More specific the objectives were:
1. To analyse in a historic and contemporary perspective the role of social and political actors and programmes in promoting cultural and scientific exchange, and social collaboration at the EU-CELAC biregional and bilateral levels. This included an assessment of the prevailing perceptions of the European model in CELAC.
2. To identify bright spots and asymmetries in past and ongoing cooperations, as well as to propose a set of high impact actions and initiatives to strengthen the cooperation. Emphasis was on actions that conducted to social innovation and value through the involvement of civil society and other end users.
3. To address beneficiaries in both regions through dissemination of the research results, open source publications, and conferences, thus creating the grounds for a reinforced common vision both at the citizen and governmental and regional levels. Build partnerships for up-scaling and institutionalizing the high impact cultural, scientific, and social actions and initiatives identified throughout the project.

Team: