Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly

The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EUROLAT) is a trans-national body of 120 Parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America. It was established in 2006 to bolster EU-Latin American relations. It was described by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's External Relations Commissioner, as "one of the key bodies in ensuring fruitful cooperation between our two regions."

Organisation

The body is led by a co-presidency (one from Europe, the other from Latin America). The current European president is José Salafranca Sánchez-Neira while the Latin American is Ney Lopes (of Brazil, Latin American Parliament). There are 12 vice-Presidents, again equally split. There have been calls to increase the number of vice-presidents to 14. It has three standing committees with 40 members each: Political, Security and Human Rights Affairs; Economic, Financial and Trade Affairs; and Social, Environmental, Educational and Cultural Affairs. There can be a maximum of 2 temporary committees.

Members

The 120 members are split equally between European and Latin American members. There have been calls for increasing the number of members to 150 to ensure better representation of MERCOSUR, Chile and Mexico. The members are currently drawn from the following bodies;
* European Parliament (60)
* Andean Parliament
* Central American Parliament
* Latin American Parliament
* Joint parliamentary committee of MERCOSUR
* Congress of Mexico
* National Congress of Chile

European delegation

There are 60 full members of the delegation from the European Parliament. The chairman is José Salafranca Sánchez-Neira. There are 30 other substitute members

External links

* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/eurolat/default_en.htm Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/eurolat/documents/20070529_grouporder_en.pdf EP delegation to EuroLat]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/030-12373-310-11-45-903-20061106IPR12367-06-11-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm Inaugural Meeting of Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/030-12374-310-11-45-903-20061106IPR12368-06-11-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm First EU-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly paves the way for closer co-operation]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/030-15683-352-12-51-903-20071217IPR15668-18-12-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly opens its first ordinary session in Brussels] (18 December 2007)
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/030-15684-352-12-51-903-20071217IPR15669-18-12-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly session concludes work] (20 December 2007)