The European Union's Civil Society Cooperation with Latin America

Summary of a book by the Association of Investigation and Specialization on Latin American Subjects (AIETI)which synthesizes the information obtained in 15 national studies on civil societies and their role in development cooperation with Latin America. In the book a lengthy Annex is appended to the bibliography, including a list of centres and persons interviewed during the course of the research, together with a glossary of abbreviations and tables with data on the European Commision's co-financing of European NGOs working in Latin America.

Along with the book, and this summary version, three other monographic studies with complementary data and analysis are also being published.The book's objective is to analyze the current situation and future perspectives of development co-operation between the civil societies of European Union member states and the countries of Latin America. The goal of this research was not to exhaust the topic but rather to fill one particular vacuum in the current research on Euro-Latin American relations by providing a more complete global panorama: the lack of comprehensive publications on the role and behavior of civil societies in both regions (1). While there has been diverse research on the co-operation activities of certain European organizations in particular countries or subregions of Latin America, in general such studies are largely partial. More importantly, the perspective of Latin America's civil societies remains to be investigated. For the moment, then, this study hopes to contribute some important pieces still needed to complete the analytical puzzle of Euro-Latin American relations.