The first EU-Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Ministerial Conference on the environment was held on 4 March 2008 in Brussels. It was organized by the European Commission and the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, in conjunction with the Peruvian Presidency of the LAC countries. It successfully brought together Environment Ministers and high officials from both regions and provided a unique opportunity to exchange views on areas of common interest for possible future joint actions. This was a concrete follow up of the commitment taken at the EU-LAC Summit in Vienna (2006), which agreed to launch a dialogue at a political level to exchange views on environmental issues of mutual interest. This Ministerial Conference was also proposed as an input for the 5^th EU-LAC Lima Summit in the area of sustainable development: environment, climate change and energy.