EU AND LATIN AMERICA SEAL COOPERATION IN BRUSSELS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME
The Ministers of the Interior of the European Union and their counterparts of the Latin American Committee on Internal Security (CLASI) met this Thursday, September 28, 2023, in Brussels to strengthen cooperation against serious and organized transnational crime and to establish a stable and permanent joint collaboration framework.
Held in parallel to the EU Interior Ministers’ Council, the meeting has been sponsored and promoted by Spain and will culminate with the approval of a joint declaration that will constitute “an important step forward to consolidate and strengthen common initiatives”, in the words of the acting Minister of the Interior and current President of the Council, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Grande-Marlaska opened the inaugural session of the ministerial meeting, accompanied by Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson and Panama’s Deputy Minister Jonathan Anier Riggs, President of CLASI. The Latin American Committee will be represented by delegations from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The day included two technical discussion sessions, with interventions from the main European security and justice agencies, including Europol, Eurojust and Frontex, as well as Ameripol, the Latin American police agency.
The purpose of the meeting was to deepen and formalize cooperation in key areas for both regions, such as the fight against drug trafficking, human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants and firearms.
Police cooperation priorities also include the fight against child sexual abuse, cybercrime, environmental and financial crime, illegal trade in cultural property, including money laundering, as well as corruption and the illicit profits it generates.
Ministers from EU and CLASI member states discussed coordination between supranational security agencies during the sessions to promote coordination between EMPACT, the European platform against organized crime, and the operational action plans of CLASI and Ameripol.
The events of this summit began on Wednesday with a dinner for the attending delegations hosted by the ambassador permanent representative of Spain to the European Union, Marcos Alonso, at his official residence. On Thursday, the Europa Building hosted the working lunch of the heads of delegation of the CLASI countries and the interior ministers of the EU member states. The agenda ended with an official dinner for the delegations at a hotel in Brussels.
STRATEGIC SECURITY PARTNERSHIP
Since 2017, the program PAcCTO has already fostered a strategic partnership between the EU and Latin America in the fight against organized crime. Police and judicial cooperation has also been intensified through the participation of Latin American countries in EMPACT and the signing of international agreements and security work agreements with Europol and Eurojust.
This relationship will now be consolidated through CLASI, created in March 2022 in Brussels. Its first ministerial meeting was held in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in November 2022 and its subsequent development has received the support of Spain, which has acted as a link with the European Union and promoted joint collaboration, making it one of the priorities of the Ministry of the Interior during the rotating presidency of the European Union.
On April 28, Grande-Marlaska participated in Buenos Aires in the transfer of the rotating presidency of CLASI between Argentina and Panama, a forum in which he presented the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the European Council in the field of Interior and invited the Latin American ministers to participate in the joint ministerial meeting this Thursday with the Interior Ministers of the European Union.
This article was originally published in Aquí Europa. If you plan to use it, please cite that source.
