“We are proud to continue to strengthen the European Union’s cooperation with the PALOP-TL after 30 years of a successful partnership. Today, the PALOP-TL and the European Union are already collaborating on national and regional initiatives within the scope of the Global Gateway in areas such as digitization, climate, energy, transport, health, education and research”, said Jutta Urpilainen, according to the Final Communiqué of the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting for the Cooperation of Portuguese-Speaking African Countries and Timor-Leste with the European Union (PALOP-TL and the EU), which took place on March 1, 2023, in Brussels, capital of the Kingdom of Belgium.
During the meeting, the Commissioner and the Deputy Prime Minister of Finance of Cape Verde, Olavo Avelino Correia, signed the Financing Agreement for the new project “Support to economic governance in the PALOP-TL”, which will be implemented in the form of a Delegated Cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) through its office in Cape Verde. “The Financing Agreement we signed today, within the context of the Global Gateway, the EU’s positive and sustainable offer to its partners, in economic governance, will continue to support public institutions in the PALOP-TL countries”, underlined the Commissioner, mentioned in the Communiqué.
The statement added that the project aims to promote the efficient management of public finances, budget transparency and economic governance in the 6 countries and is funded by the European Union for a global amount of 8 million euros.
The meeting had the opportunity to address the issue of “Mozambique’s mandate as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and implications for the PALOP-TL/EU partnership”. The partners pledged to continue political dialogues of this nature to help the partners to strengthen not only their relations, but also their collaboration on issues of the international agenda and the strengthening of multilateralism, says the document.
It also stresses that the PALOP-TL and the European Union appreciate the impact and results obtained in the project “Support for the Consolidation of the Rule of Law in the PALOP and Timor-Leste” (PACED), which ended on June 30, 2022, which was funded by the European Union in the amount of €8.4 million and was implemented by Camões IP.
The positive evolution of the two ongoing projects was also noted:
– “Employment promotion in income-generating activities in the cultural sector”, ProCultura, supported with EUR 19.2m by the European Union and Camões IP
– “Consolidation of economic governance and the public finance management system in the PALOP-TL”, with EUR 8 million financed by the European Union and UNDP.
