Europa and latin america / Cooperación internacional

Constitutive ministerial meeting of the CLASI

Since 2019, the European Union’s EL PAcCTO Program is promoting the creation of a Latin American Committee on Homeland Security (CLASI). So far, 12 Latin American countries have expressed their interest at the highest level (Ministers of Interior / Security / Interior): Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Peru.

A virtual meeting to present CLASI was held on June 25, 2020, with the participation of several ministers. In 2021, work was carried out on the development of internal regulations. In October 2021, a first face-to-face working meeting was held with representatives of the ministers, prior to the organization of the meeting at ministerial level that could formally decide on the creation of CLASI, in Brussels, in the margins of a JAI Council meeting, under the French Presidency of the European Union in March 2022.

EL PAcCTO, a demand-driven program, is simply intended to play a supporting role in the process of creating CLASI. This implies creating the conditions for Latin American countries to take this decision. Through specialists in the field, EL PAcCTO proposes to support the development of an internal regulation that will have to be approved by the Latin American countries. Likewise, the definition of a work schedule will be accompanied and good practices will be shared for the definition of priorities, common strategies and articulated policies, but all the contents will have to be defined by the participating countries.