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Sir Hilary Beckles

In an effort to deepen ties between the Caribbean and Europe and help The UWI protect the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in the European Union (EU), a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between The University of the West Indies (The UWI) and the European University Institute (EUI), is expected.

The agreement, which was signed virtually on July 14, 2020, includes the establishment of a research center. It was signed by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI and Professor Renaud Dehousse, President of the EUI.

That center will help to promote inter-regional and intra-regional development and encourage discourse on how transnational and global issues impact the Caribbean Region and Europe.

After a year of negotiations, the EUI agreed to host a joint UWI-EU center. It will be anchored in Florence, Italy and will provide services to our foreign service community, business groups, advocacy leaders in issues such as public health, climate change, economics equity for small island nations, Vice-Chancellor Beckles explained.

The UWI and EUI partnership foresees collaboration in areas of studies and research common to both institutions. Areas of focus will include sustainable development, multilateral trade, gender equality, security, environment and climate change, migration, energy, regional integration processes, and transnational governance.

Last year, Vice-Chancellor Beckles began to pursue a strategy to position The UWI in the EU as a strategic response to Brexit.

He noted that The UWI had to step up to create academic research and business advisory hub in the EU.

He felt the region needed greater policy support within the EU, as the EU downgraded the regions finance sector, and responded poorly to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

Beckles referred to the relationship between Europe and the Caribbean over 500 years as one of the most intense historical experiences between two parts of the world and the basis of modernity as we know it.

He said, It is a relationship that has to be sustained within the context of its positive contributions, mutually to Europe and to the Caribbean and of course to the wider world. So, it is perfectly normal therefore that universities ought to be coming together within this context to sustain the benefits and to provide a vision for the future of this relationship.

Noting that joint activities by universities are very significant in effective achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Beckles said that The UWI, for example, has been selected by the International Association of Universities to provide global advocacy around some of these sustainable goals, in particular, goal #13 which focuses on climate-smart issues.

Work has begun on the implementation of the MOU at both The UWI and the EUI.

Professor Dehousse said that given The UWIs excellent reputation, the partnership is a kind of bridgehead in the broader Caribbean and Latin American world and represents an opening towards a region of the world in which we are still developing contacts. He added that Europes problems today are no longer confined to what is going on within its borders, and it is absolutely indispensable for us to open up towards other regions of the world, as well as to other kinds of actors.

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UWI to protect CARICOM in the European Union | New York Carib News - NYCaribNews