Upon taking over the Presidency of the Council of the EU, Lithuania for the first time ever will host the meeting of representatives of the Euro-Latin American and the Caribbean Parliamentary Assembly (EUROLAT) in the Seimas, Vilnius. Approximately 120 participants form 50 countries are expected to attend the meeting.

The participants of the Meeting will mainly focus on citizen participation and democracy, fight against drug abuse, corruption and the lack of transparency, as well as debate on recent political developments, and bilateral and inter-regional cooperation.

A joint inaugural session of EuroLat will be held on 16 July 2013, at 3.00 p.m. in the Plenary Chamber (Building 2 of the Seimas). The speakers of the session are: Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas; Linas Linkevičius, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs; José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, President of EuroLat‘s European component, Spanish Member of the European Parliament; and Leonel Vásquez Búcaro, President of EuroLat’s Latin American component.

Information for journalists: A press conference with the Presidents of EuroLat will take place on 16 July 2013, at 4.00 p.m., in the Press Conference Hall of the Seimas. On 17 July 2013, at 11.00 a.m. and 12.30 p.m., journalists will have an opportunity to ask questions to participants of the meetings of the EUROLAT Standing Committees.

The joint inaugural session will be broadcast live on: the website of the Seimas, the website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, and the television channel titled Seimas – tiesiogiai. On 16 July 2013, at 7.10 a.m., Laima Liucija Andrikienė, Member of the European Parliament, Substitute Member of the EP Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly, will introduce the event at the TV programme Labas rytas, Lietuva (en. Good Morning, Lithuania) on the Lithuanian National Television LRT.

A comprehensive programme of the event is available on the website of EUROLAT (in English, French and Spanish). You can also find the programme of the event in Lithuanian, English and French on the website of the parliamentary dimension of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat) was created in 2006 and is the parliamentary institution of the Bi-regional Strategic Association EU-Latin America and the Caribbean.

EuroLat is composed of 150 members, 75 from the European Parliament and 75 from the Latin American component, including Parlatino (Latin American Parliament), Parlandino (Andean Parliament), Parlacen (Central American Parliament) and Parlasur (Mercosur Parliament). The Mexican and Chilean Congresses EuroLat members are designated according to each Parliament's internal rules in order to reflect the diversity of political groups and countries represented in each of those Parliaments and Congresses.

Two Co-Presidents chair EuroLat, one European and one Latin American and 14 Co-Vice Presidents (7 from each side). Official EuroLat languages are the official languages of the EU. Working languages are English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

Jolanta Anskaitienė, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]