Alberto Brunori, Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation, is visiting Costa Rica from 29 to 31 July to urge the country's ratification of the organisation's constitutive agreement, a move he says would deepen San José's role in bi-regional cooperation between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean. During his stay, Brunori is scheduled to meet with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship and with the Permanent Special Commission on International Relations and Foreign Trade of the Legislative Assembly. The visit comes as 27 EU member states and 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries have already ratified the agreement, leaving Costa Rica among the remaining signatories yet to complete the process.
Brunori highlighted that Costa Rica has been an active partner of the EU-LAC Foundation, benefiting from numerous bi-regional initiatives. He pointed to the participation of Costa Rican diplomats in the EU-CELAC Young Diplomats Training Programme, the presence of national representatives in research networks, meetings between think tanks and high-level dialogues, as well as the organisation in San José of multi-stakeholder forums bringing together authorities, academia, civil society and the private sector to debate shared priorities between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean. He stressed that ratification would allow Costa Rica to consolidate its participation in the governance of the organisation, reflecting the country's historical commitment to strengthening bi-regional dialogue and the strategic partnership between the two regions.
The EU-LAC Foundation, based in Hamburg, Germany, was created in 2010 by the heads of state and government of the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to strengthen the bi-regional partnership with input from civil society and other social actors, foster mutual knowledge and understanding, and improve the visibility of the partnership. It acquired the status of an international organisation on 17 May 2019, when its constitutive agreement entered into force. The foundation aligns its work with the priorities set in high-level EU-CELAC forums, such as the Brussels Declaration (2023) and the 2023–2025 Roadmap, focusing on themes including democracy, human rights and the rule of law, gender equality, climate change, environment and financing, and security and illicit economies.
The visit underscores the foundation's role in facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue, generating knowledge through research and policy reports, and promoting participation in international forums. For Costa Rica, ratification would mean a stronger institutional foothold in the foundation's governance, potentially amplifying its influence in shaping bi-regional priorities. For the EU and CELAC, securing Costa Rica's ratification would bring the foundation closer to universal membership among the partnership's countries, reinforcing the legitimacy and reach of its activities. The main stakeholders affected are Costa Rican authorities, who face a legislative decision with diplomatic implications; the EU-LAC Foundation itself, which would gain a more complete membership; and the broader network of civil society, academic and private-sector actors in Costa Rica that have engaged with the foundation's programmes and would see their access to bi-regional cooperation channels potentially enhanced.