EU announces €2.5bn support for Latin America

The European Union announced support of at least 2.5 billion euros (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) for Latin America for the period 2014 to 2020, an European Commission statement said on Monday. The new financial package, which is part of the Development Cooperation Instrument, will be discussed at the EUROsociAL conference in Brussels on Monday. Decision makers and high-level representatives from the EU and Latin America will come together to discuss future cooperation between the two regions during the talks. The support budget is to be spent on the areas of security, good governance, accountability and social equity, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, environmental sustainability, resilience and climate change, education and a sub-regional programme for Central America. The EU has over 18 years of experience of regional cooperation in Latin America and in that time has provided more than 1 billion euros of investment. Between 2007 and 2013, the EU provided 556 million euros for regional programs in Latin America.