This event is the result of the cooperation agreement between EUROsociAL and ESAF. In recognition of the National Tax Education Programme (PNEF), which is coordinated by the ESAF, the EUROsociAL Programme, financed by the EU, included among its objectives the creation of the course Tax Education and Social Cohesion aimed at students in higher education. It is hoped that this will promote and institutionalise tax education as a tool for full exercise of citizenship and consolidating participatory democracy in Brazil and Latin America.

Representatives from academia and government bodies of Brazil, Chile, Honduras and Mexico met to discuss the dissemination of knowledge on the financial activities of the state and its relationship to the exercise and strengthening of participatory democracy.

At the inauguration of the event, the Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation in Brazil, Thierry Dudermel, indicated that social cohesion is only possible through the exchange of experiences. Dudermel considers tax education to be a commitment to the common good and to democracy which brings the state closer to its citizens.

The host of the conference, Alexandre Motta, Director General of the ESAF, in her speech entitled “Tax education as a quality control tool for public spending”, emphasised the importance of social participation based on transparency and knowledge. Motta underlined in particular the theme of the quality of public spending, which in her opinion represents a fundamental concept for deepening tax education at the moment.

Waldemir Pires, responsible for preparing the content for the Budgetary Planning, Execution of Public Spending, and Social Control modules, emphasised that the instructional logic of the course should encourage students to debate with hope and compassion. This, according to him, apart from being a highly important civilised attitude for society, also builds a bridge between tax education and social cohesion, which is an important theme for everyone and an area in which the EUROsociAL Programme works constantly.

Marciano Buffon, the man who created the Tax Collection and Tax Justice discipline, emphasised that the Brazilian constitution provides for the establishment of a democratic state as a force for building social equality, and that in addition to defining what we are, the principles that should govern us, our objectives as a nation, also indicates how to achieve these ideals, i.e., by guaranteeing fundamental rights.

The Tax Education action is part of the Public Finance area of EUROsociAL and is coordinated by the FIIAPP.