President Danilo Medina will be traveling to Brussels in mid-June to attend the Second European Union-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Summit, as announced by Alberto Navarro, head of the European Delegation in Santo Domingo. The meeting is scheduled for 10-11 June 2015.
The second EU-CELAC / Eighth EU-LAC summit will focus on: “Shaping our common future: working for prosperous, cohesive and sustainable societies for our citizens”.
President Medina will be visiting Europe shortly before the expiration of the National Foreigner Legalization Plan that offered fast-tracked free legalization to foreigners and was intended especially to benefit illegal Haitians. The visit will also be at a time when the EU Chief Executive Officer for the Americas Christian Leffler has expressed concerns over the deportations of Haitian immigrants. Haiti’s President Michel Martelly is also expected to attend.
The National Foreigner Legalization Plan has met with the main obstacle of the Haitian government’s failure to document its citizens. In Haiti most people do not have legal documentation, which causes major problems when they emigrate.
During the meeting, delegations are scheduled to hold political talks about innovation capacity for sustainable growth, education, security and climate change.
The EU-CELAC summits bring together European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders to strengthen relations between both regions. The summits are intended to be the main fora for dialogue and cooperation between Europe, and Latin American and Caribbean states.
European Council President Donald Tusk will chair the summit, which 61 heads of state or governments are expected to attend.
In a meeting with the press last week to announce the event, Florence Van Houtte of the EU Delegation in the Dominican Republic said that one of the greatest challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses is to improve quality to export to Europe. She announced a EUR11 million program to support these companies.
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2015/06/10-11/