As outlined in the ‘New Agenda for Relations between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean’, our EU-Latin America and Caribbean cooperation is reinforcing its political engagement, boosting trade and investment, and building more sustainable, fair and inter-connected societies through Global Gateway investments. The EU-LAC Digital Alliance creates a strategic framework to foster substantial bi-regional cooperation across a wide spectrum of digital issues.
The Alliance fosters digital transformation and innovation based on our shared commitment to a human-centric vision of the digital economy and society. Governments, private stakeholders, international finance institutions, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, civil society and academia are involved in its implementation.
Background and Objectives
The EU and Latin America and the Caribbean have a joint interest in pursuing digital policies that empower people and businesses to build a human-centric, sustainable and more prosperous digital future. The EU-LAC Digital Alliance was launched in March 2023 with the ambition to join forces for an inclusive and human-centric digital transformation in both regions and to develop bi-regional dialogue and cooperation across the full spectrum of digital issues.
Both regions can benefit from further cooperating on areas such as regulatory dialogue, connectivity and free and safe data flows, integrated innovation ecosystems and space services. During the EU-CELAC Summit held in Brussels in July 2023, a Joint Declaration on the principles and objectives of the Digital Alliance was adopted by the Heads of State from the EU MS and 20 LAC countries, namely Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. In February 2024, also Belize joined the Alliance.
The objective of the Alliance is to bring the EU and LAC digital markets closer together through the following joint activities:
- Fostering good governance, transparency, participation, and accountability
- Promoting demand-driven digital dialogue between LAC and EU policy makers at high and expert level
- Ensuring secure, affordable, high-speed connectivity to reach the full potential of the digital economy
- Fostering bi-regional cooperation in the fields of research and education, and enabling innovation in digital products and services
- Fostering multi-stakeholder and private sector collaboration, competitiveness, and innovation in the digital area, promoting private-public collaborative networks and mechanisms, and bringing EU and LAC partners together
- Enabling cooperation and access to earth observation data to key sectors working in environmental resilience, emergency risk management, adaptation to climate change, and fostering industrial collaboration on these issues
For the Digital Alliance to realise its full potential, a large number of bilateral activities in the digital domain are underway, including:
- European Commission regional and bilateral programmes with countries in the region;
- Digital actions led by EU Delegations in LAC; and
- Member States' bilateral partnerships and programmes in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
All these bilateral digital cooperation actions underpin the umbrella of the Digital Alliance.
As a result, the EU-LAC Digital Alliance is a prime example of a bi-regional partnership that promotes the joint interest of our two regions based on shared values.
Implementation
To meet our common goals, the following actions are being implemented:
- Improving and converging digital policy and regulatory frameworks through the establishment of structured multi-stakeholder dialogue
- Expanding the BELLA cable programme by building secure digital regional backbone connectivity for research and education networks within the LAC region and with the EU
- Establishing a regional EU-LAC Digital Accelerator to bring start-ups and larger corporates together and stimulate business innovation
- Establishing a regional Copernicus strategy with two regional data centres to enhance the resilience of the Latin America and Caribbean countries by supporting their spatial data management capacity and strategic use
The EU-LAC Digital Alliance implementation strategies will explicitly integrate the dimensions of environmental protection, climate change, bettering resilience, gender equality, and digital inclusion for social inclusion.
Expected results
- At least 20 EU-LAC digital policy dialogues on issues of common interest
- Introductory event of the EU-LAC Digital Alliance in Central America, San Salvador (October 2023)
- EU-LAC Digital Alliance Days in Cartagena de Indias (November 2023)
- High-level bi-regional policy dialogue on Cybersecurity in Santo Domingo (February 2024)
- Bi-regional policy dialogue on Artificial Intelligence during eLAC Preparatory meeting in Montevideo (March 2024)
- High-level policy dialogue on e-Governance in San José (May 2024)
- High-level policy dialogue on Data Governance in Montevideo (September-October 2024)
- Second bi-regional policy dialogue on Artificial Intelligence and first high-level dialogue on Connectivity and Inclusion during eLAC Ministerial Conference in Santiago de Chile (November 2024)
- The extension of the digital infrastructure of the BELLA cable to Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Dominican Republic. BELLA is already connected to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Panama
- The creation of 50 joint ventures, the participation of 100 EU organisations in supported digital business collaborations with LAC counterparts, and the establishment of a first-time collaboration between 40 EU organizations and their counterparts in LAC under the Digital Accelerator
- The setting up of two regional Copernicus centres in Panama and in Chile
Others
- GIZ, FIIAAP, Expertise France, eGA
- ECLAC
- RedCLARA
- TECNALIA Research & Innovation
- European Space Agency (ESA), University of Chile (Center for Mathematical Modelling)
- LAC4 cyber centre