EU security cooperation with Latin America: A priority requiring consolidation

Although security cooperation is not yet a well-consolidated priority for the EU in its relations with Latin America, it has acquired increasing importance with the explicit inclusion of citizen security as a new priority area in the 2015 EU-CELAC action plan.

The main current areas of EU security-related cooperation with the region are

+ the fight against drugs
+ violence prevention
+ conflict resolution in Colombia, with an EU stake in its peace process
+ the participation of some Latin American countries in EU crisis-management operations in the framework of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy.

This is achieved through trans-regional, regional, sub-regional and bilateral programmes and projects, as well as through the conclusion of framework agreements with certain Latin American countries.

The European Parliament is particularly involved in promoting security cooperation with the region, as evidenced by its support for a Euro-Latin American Charter for Peace and Security, in the framework of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, and the adoption of specific resolutions on the subject.

Author: Enrique Gómez Ramírez

Council of the European Union: EU-CELAC Summit, Brussels, 2015: EU-CELAC Action Plan http://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/23757/eu-celac-action-plan.pdf

---