The European Union's regional cooperation in Latin America is facing a new period for which it is pertinent to deepen the responses that regional programmes can provide to the realities of the different Latin American countries. For this reason, a meeting was held in Asunción to analyse Paraguay's demands and the responses provided by EUROsociAL, as well as the results achieved and the lessons learnt for the next phase of the programme.

For EUROsociAL, which has already advanced in this direction with its focus on experience exchanges between counterpart public administrations, the meetings will also serve to assess the main impacts and most important features of its methodology and/or the coordination between thematic areas, and to discuss the future agenda and the scenario for potential demands to be tackled in the upcoming phase, which will be implemented under the name EUROsociAL+.

The protagonists of the meeting were once again the institutions of Paraguay that have participated in EUROsociAL in the various national, regional, sectoral and cross-cutting lines of work, laying the groundwork for the discussion based on their experiences. Other participants included the programme's coordinating partners (FIIAPP, Expertise France and IILA) and operational partners (CIPPEC, IEF and IDLO) who have implemented the different responses over the past five years.

The meeting included the participation of the European Union Ambassador to Paraguay, Alessandro Palmero; the Minister and Secretary-General of Paraguay's Social Cabinet, Juan Carlos López Moreira; and the Minister-Executive Secretary of Paraguay's Social Action Secretariat, the Minister of Education and Culture, Marta Lafuente, and the Minister of Justice, Carla Bacigalupo.

Representatives of the Paraguayan institutions also participated actively in the dialogue: Social Cabinet; Ministry of Education and Culture; Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security; State Undersecretariat of Taxation (SET); Ministry of Finance; National Secretariat for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SENADIS); Judiciary; Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Public Defence; Ministry for Women; Secretariat of Social Action; National Secretariat of Childhood and Adolescence; National System for Vocational Training (SINAFOCAL).