EFE (via 14ymedio), Madrid, 8 July 2023 — On Friday, an NGO affiliated with the Cuban government criticized a forum organized within the framework of the European Union and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-Celac) Summit, which will take place on July 17 and 18.
The Cuban Association of the United Nations (ACNU) – not related to the UN – said that the forum Civil society, youth and local authorities, convened by the EU for July 13 and 14, has been characterized by the “lack of timely information and the exclusion” of participants.
According to Cuban state media, at a press conference, the NGO charged that the format proposed for this forum “does not conform” to the decision adopted by the foreign ministers at a meeting held in Buenos Aires in October 2022.
The president of the ACNU, Norma Goicochea, also stated that the forum is not organized by the EU but by a platform of organizations, which in her opinion is not the usual practice in this type of initiative.
Similarly, she criticized the proposal for ignoring Celac and its social articulation based on an “integrationist, supportive and social justice” approach for the Latin American and Caribbean region.
The president of the ACNU also criticized the fact that the number of face-to-face attendees has been limited, which in her opinion “unacceptably reduces the participation of the varied and broad spectrum” of civil society organizations from the Latin American continent.
Goicochea said that the individual and collective associates of the ACNU “will have representatives at the People’s Summit,” a meeting that is held in Madrid days before the CELAC-EU meeting in Brussels, and which she described as “a plural, democratic exercise participatory from a bi-regional approach”.
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