Members of the European Parliament :

Jurgen Klute - Confederal Group of the United Left - Nordic Green Left

Ska Keller - Green/European Free Alliance

Charles Goerens - Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

Gay Mitchell - Group of European People's Party

Ricardo Cortes Lastra - Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats

Invite you to the conference:

Aid to the private sector: promoting responsible investments?

Latin America as a testing ground

European Parliament, Brussels, Room A1E-2

Thursday, 21 of March 2013, 11:00 - 13:00

In the framework of the revised Development Cooperation Instrument, which is about to be approved by the European Commission, the private sector becomes an important actor. It would, among other things, be the recipient of EU Official Development Assistance funds. This raises a number of concerns: Who are these companies? How effective can the private sector be as an aid provider? To what degree can they provide socio-environmental safeguards? How will they assume accountability? The question on the lack of opportunities for local beneficiaries' participation is raised as well. In this occasion the case of Latin-America will be analyzed.

Putting thus, the EU's commitment to eradicating poverty as a starting point, a panel of experts, researchers and Latin American representatives will scrutinize this topic accompanied by the conclusions of a series of reports carried out by civil society organizations.

Interpretation will be assured in French, Spanish and English

For full program details click attachment