The European Union and the Portuguese-speaking African countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau,Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe) and Timor-Leste signed an agreement under which the EU will provide support of €30 million for their cooperation under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF).
The ceremony took place in in São Tomé e Príncipe in the presence of Director-General for International Cooperation and Development, Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, and the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, Nyeleti Brooke Mondlane, who signed on behalf of PALOP-TL.
The aim of the new programme is to reinforce an existing regional network within the Portuguese speaking countries’ community. The main objective will be to promote employment, through mobility and social inclusion, using the common language. A specific component on governance capacity development will reinforce institutional capacity in key policy areas of common interest, such as statistics, justice, electoral cycles, and new domains such as research, climate change or environmental issues. This will allow countries to reinforce cooperation within their network, mobilising expertise on demand in specific areas of interest. More information is available online on the European Commission’s webpage for Development and Cooperation.
