The Advisory Committee of the Europe and the Global South project from a sub-state perspective, an initiative of the eAtlantic Fundazioa Foundation supported by the Ford Foundation, will meet today, Wednesday, and tomorrow, Thursday, in Bilbao.

The Europe and the Global South from a Sub-State Perspective project aims to promote dialogue between actors in Europe and countries in the South, particularly at the level of sub-state authorities – understood as autonomous governments, federal states and regions, as well as local entities – civil society organisations, the private sector, churches and other actors on both sides. It also seeks to guide this dialogue towards ways in which initiatives and debates at the local level can be projected to the state level and from there to the multilateral arena.

The project is inspired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ idea of inclusive and participatory multilateralism, with so-called multilevel diplomacy. This meeting in the capital of Bizkaia brings together a number of specialists from different sectors in Latin America, Africa and Europe.

On the morning of Thursday 22 January, after a welcome from the president of the eAtlantic Fundazioa Foundation, Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, and the vice-president for international projects at the Ford Foundation, Martín Abregú, Mariano Aguirre will present the project and the objective of the advisory committee meeting.

The day’s sessions will address issues such as the rise of the Global South and Europe’s role in a changing international system, and the sub-state dimension and its possible influence on the multilateral system. During the debate in the two final sessions, the members of the Committee of Experts will define the two priority topics, from among the four preselected, to be addressed in the project. These topics share the common characteristic of needing to be discussed and managed by states and multilateral and sub-state actors. At the same time, they are interrelated and interact with each other.