The meeting in Brussels of the EL with the Sao Paulo Forum is part of a series of meetings and initiatives that strengthen these links based on the joint work conducted on topics and issues that our political organizations and our people are covering.

This joint work allows the search for convergence starting from the concrete. This is not a formal relationship.

The relations between Latin America and the European Union affect us primarily as regional political entities. Topics of great importance are discussed and negotiated between the EU and the countries of Latin America. These negotiations are not far from the battles conducted by the EL: the competition between our economies and development of our territories, the way trade between our two regions will be organized, the question to know whether the agreements which are or will signed will strengthen the power of transnational or if they are finally going to enable our peoples to enter a relationship of cooperation and complementarity.

We are convinced that we can and must act to influence, as forces of the left transformation, the future of this relationship as being discussed as part of Heads of State summits and Government of the EU and of the CELAC. We can do this by advancing all the proposals, pointing critical issues, by sending us in all our societies and seeking convergence with other political and social forces.

There are too serious subjects to be set aside or treated lightly as often happens in these summits. It is our duty to condemn the serious violations of human rights in countries with which the EU wants to open the possibility of new markets. We must support the proposals made by governments and progressive forces on these issues, as also on the new financial architecture, the reform of international institutions, the UN, the fight against climate change and to provide solutions to problems as hunger and raise the priority challenge of food sovereignty.

The Forum of Sao Paulo and Party of the European Left debated about peace, multilateralism, disarmament and the rights of peoples, among others.

This meeting is an important time to advance in the search for convergence between the forces of the left and transformation between our peoples. We often fight on the same land in our own countries, as does the EL in Europe alongside the Greek government and SYRIZA, and preparing the European Forum for Alternatives to be held in Paris on 30 and 31 May 2015. The context of capitalist globalization and systemic crisis of capitalism that we are facing the need to give our struggles and proposals a dimension that transcends national and regional level to give them more strength and efficiency.

A joint declaration will conclude the meeting days extending a consolidated relationship over the years.