Welcome
Minister of State Hoyer meets the President-elect of the EU-LAC Foundation
Minister of State Werner Hoyer met today with Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Mr Jorge Valdez, respectively the President and the Executive Director of the European Union-Latin America and Caribbean Foundation. After the talks, Minister of State Hoyer issued the following statement:
“I was very pleased to welcome the heads of the new EU-LAC Foundation to Germany on behalf of the Federal Government.
During our talks today, we discussed the next steps in establishing the new Foundation and spoke about its objectives. We agreed that the remaining questions regarding the Foundation’s legal status need to be resolved quickly. We want the Foundation to be able to start its work with a high profile as soon as possible.
We will cooperate closely with the Foundation and consider it a key partner in implementing our new Latin American policy.”
The decision to establish an EU-Latin America and Caribbean Foundation to intensify and strengthen the bi-regional partnership was taken on 18 May 2010 at the Sixth EU-LAC Summit in Madrid. Hamburg was chosen as its future seat in January 2011. The German Government had lobbied for the Foundation to be based in the Hanseatic city. As a major port, Hamburg has a long tradition of economic and cultural ties with the Latin American and Caribbean region.
At a meeting in Santiago de Chile on 29 April 2011, Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner of Austria and Jorge Valdez of Peru were elected to be President and Executive Director of the new Foundation. It is to start its work as soon as possible in Hamburg.
