Over the last year Latin America and Europe have crossed paths on a number of significant regional and international issues respectively. The financial crisis spread its toxic tentacles across the globe and Foreign Direct Investment, Official Development Assistance, remittances and trade from Europe to Latin America have slowed down. Negotiations on Association Agreements between the EU and Latin American blocks and bilaterally negotiated free trade agreements have stalled and in some cases broken down.

Some issues to be considered include:

• How can the EU-LA partnership be more flexible in reacting to and accommodating for greater turmoil in the international system;
• The need to pay attention to the role of the US, and now China, in the region.
• How to focus the debate on Latin America on a number of issues of mutual interest and what role can the UK play?

This meeting was a chance for Chris Bryant, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, to draw from his personal experience in Latin America and apply it to how the region, the UK and Europe should work together to tackle common global challenges. Michael Reid, the Americas Editor at the Economist magazine acted as discussant.