The European Union-funded program, PACCTO 2.0, for institutional strengthening against organized crime, has held its Annual Program Meeting 2025, with the main objective of strengthening cooperation against organized crime between the EU and its partners in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Under the slogan “Cooperation that protects: keys for the EU-CELAC Summit”, it is expected that the dialogues generated at the meeting on the priorities and needs of the region to address the threat of organized crime will serve as inputs for the EU-CELAC Summit to be held in Santa Marta, Colombia, in November of this year, reinforcing the strategic partnership on justice and security that has existed between the two regions since the declaration signed at the last Summit by their Heads of State and Government (Brussels, 2023).

The meeting included inaugural speeches by the Peruvian Prime Minister, Eduardo Arana, the EU Ambassador to Peru, Jonathan Hatwell, the President of the Peruvian Supreme Court, Janet Tello Giraldi, and the Director General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission, Ana Gallego. It brought together more than 400 representatives of justice and security institutions, including 40 high-level authorities.

The first two days will be devoted to high-level political dialogue, with presentations and roundtable discussions led by ministers, deputy ministers, attorneys general and presidents of judicial authorities, as well as representatives of Latin American and Caribbean regional organizations and European agencies and institutions.

The purpose of this space is to share the political priorities and needs identified by partner countries in the region. In this way, the technical teams, formed by the focal points of the region, representatives of networks of institutions throughout the penal chain, as well as the program’s thematic experts, will be able to translate these priorities into specific plans and actions in which the program can provide technical support.

Among the topics addressed during the working sessions were: gender mainstreaming, joint investigation teams, the generation of secure information exchange flows and the importance of innovation in the fight against transnational organized crime, among others. The meeting also included sessions dedicated to the fight against drug trafficking and money laundering, under the slogan “#followthemoney”.