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What will shape the future relations between the EU and CELAC?

21. Nov. 2017

The EULAC FOCUS meeting in Argentina (7th - 10th of November) focused on future scenarios for the two regions.

The European Union as well as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC) are currently undergoing societal and geopolitical transformations. At this point it is still an open question, if both regions will move towards greater or lesser regional internal integration. In a two-day workshop, organized by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation (Mincyt), the consortium partners of the H2020 funded Research and Innovation project EULAC FOCUS - 19 established and well known Latin American, Caribbean and European universities, research institutions and political entities – kicked of the process of scenario building. This innovative approach will explore what different political, social and economic regional developments could mean for the social, cultural and scientific dimension of EU-CELAC relations.  

Thinking creatively about future developments calls for the innovative approach of scenario building. It facilitates out of the box thinking, challenges conventional patterns and provokes experiments of thoughts. The event in Buenos Aires marks the kick-off of the scenario building process which will be followed by intensive, cooperative work from researchers of the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean. Ultimately, it aims at the development of policy recommendations on how to renew the cooperation in the fields of cultural, scientific and social relations through the upscaling of bi-regional relations and the provision of a clearer strategic orientation.

The scenario building workshop was preceded by a one-day meeting that put the spotlight on the future potential of bi-regional relations in the field of culture. It brought together high profile experts in the cultural field from Latin America and Europe to critically discuss and validate findings from a Delphi survey that was done prior to the meeting.

As a next step in the scenario building process, ZSI will organize and host a scenario validation workshop in Vienna from the 5th to the 7th of June 2018. More information on this will follow soon.

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Tags: internationalisation, Latin America, social inclusion