Representatives from the Colombian government will attend meetings at the European Parliament this week to talk about the current status of the peace talks with FARC rebels.
Congresswoman and co-president of the Congress’ Peace Commission, Angela Robledo started her program of meetings in Brussels on Monday and will return to Colombia from Berlin on Saturday.
Robledo was invited to Europe by the Colombian branch of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation (FES), a non-profit political organization linked to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) which works to promote democracy and economic development in over 70 countries.
In her capacity as co-president of the Congress’ Peace Commission and member of the Green Alliance party Robledo will speak in Europe about the current progress of the peace negotiations and the corresponding perspectives of the center-left of Colombian politics.
“We are going to work with the international community and especially with members of the European parliament on the advances, the challenges and the risks of the peace process,” explained Robledo according to a press release on her personal website.
The agenda for the Brussels leg of the trip includes meetings with representatives for the FES, the European Parliament, the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission among others.
Robledo will meet with the co-president of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat), Ramon Jauregui, on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Brussels.
The trip will continue in Berlin from Thursday, including meetings with representatives from the SPD, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tom Koenigs, the special German envoy for the Colombian peace talks.
There will be a public panel discussion on the peace negotiations on Thursday chaired by Bernd Pickert from the German progressive newspaper, Taz.
Alirio Uribe from the Democratic Pole and Horacio Serpa from the Liberal Party were also invited to Europe this week by the Director of Colombia’s branch of FES, Lothar Witte.
Peace talks between the Colombian government and that FARC have been taking place in Havana, Cuba since 2012 in the hope of resolving the 51-year-long civil conflict which has left over 260,000 Colombians dead and 6 million displaced.