European Parliament Delegation on Official Visit to Timor-Leste
A delegation of ten Members of the European Parliament from the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Partnership between the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States and the European Union (OACPS-EU) began an official visit to Timor-Leste today, September 15th, 2025, which will run until September 17th. The mission, led by Francisco Assis, Chair of the Delegation to the OEACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, established by the Samoa Agreement, has as its main objectives "to send a strong political message of support to the people of Timor-Leste, a young democracy that the European Parliament has accompanied since its struggle for independence, and to consolidate the European Union's partnership with the country at a time of growing geopolitical competition in the Indo-Pacific environment," according to a statement from the European Parliament.
Timor-Leste is one of the few countries that has already ratified the Samoa Agreement and is now in the final stages of joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), factors that reinforce its strategic importance for the European Union and the region.
During the visit, the delegation has scheduled meetings with the President of the Republic, José Ramos-Horta, the Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, and the President of the National Parliament, Maria Fernanda Lay. Meetings with representatives of civil society, the Church, and the private sector are also planned.
The delegation is composed of Member of European Parliament Francisco Assis (S&D, Portugal), Dariusz Joński (EPP, Poland), Niels Hansen (EPP, Denmark), Bogdan Zdrojewski (EPP, Poland), Sérgio Humberto (EPP, Portugal), Hannes Heide (S&D, Austria), Marit Maij (S&D, Netherlands), Klara Dostalova (PfE, Czech Republic), Michal Wiezik (Renew, Slovakia), and Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, Germany).
This is the first visit by the current legislature of the Delegation to the OEACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly to Timor-Leste, in line with the shared objective of strengthening the partnership and promoting economic cooperation.
The OEACP is an intergovernmental organization comprising 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, which maintains a partnership with the European Union in the areas of economic development, regional integration, and political cooperation. Timor-Leste joined the OEACP in 2007.
The SAMOA Agreement was signed on November 15th, 2023, on the island of Samoa, at a meeting co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Bendito dos Santos Freitas. It establishes the new legal framework for partnership between the European Union and the member countries of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS), succeeding the Cotonou Agreement, which expired in 2020.
