The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation is hosting the Meeting of National Coordinators and Heads of Cooperation of the 22 Ibero-American countries on 2 and 3 November to conclude preparations for the Madrid Summit.
The meeting is the main forum for technical negotiations within the Ibero-American Conference and represents the final step before the Meeting of Foreign Ministers scheduled for 4 November.
The Secretary of State for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Susana Sumelzo, is chairing the meeting, at which delegations will examine and agree on the texts that will form the Summit’s main outcomes. In a joint session, National Coordinators and Heads of Cooperation will review and submit the draft Madrid Declaration, together with other strategic documents for the future of the Ibero-American Community, such as the new Ibero-American Cooperation Strategy.
The National Coordinators will also hold dedicated sessions to negotiate the Special Communiqués, which will be submitted for consideration by the ministers and subsequently by the Heads of State and Government. These will address issues such as road safety, security, transnational organised crime and drug trafficking, and industrial property.
For their part, the Heads of Cooperation will work towards approving the new planning framework for Ibero-American Cooperation, including the Cooperation Action Programme, the Operational Plan and various instruments designed to strengthen the governance, communication and financing of cooperation programmes. This work seeks to consolidate more effective, inclusive and results-oriented cooperation for the benefit of the region’s citizens.
The meeting builds on more than two years of dialogue and negotiations conducted during Spain’s Pro Tempore Secretariat and concludes the technical preparations ahead of the Summit.
Its significance lies in the fact that this is the forum in which the 22 countries build the consensus that subsequently enables agreements to be adopted at the highest political level, one of the distinguishing features of the Ibero-American Community since its creation.
The Meeting of National Coordinators and Heads of Cooperation is also taking place at a particularly symbolic moment for the Ibero-American Community, as it marks the 30th Ibero-American Summit and 35 years of uninterrupted meetings since the first Summit, held in Guadalajara (Mexico) in 1991.
Images of the meeting are available here
.
-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-