PALOP and Timor-Leste discuss Development Fund with the European Commission
On December 11th, the Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Luís Guterres, accompanied by the Ambassador of Timor-Leste in Brussels, Belgium, Nelson dos Santos, and by the Deputy Alternate Coordinator of Timor-Leste, Madalena Hanjan Soares, took part in the meeting between the PALOP (African Portuguese Speaking Countries) and Timor-Leste. This meeting also counted with the presence of the European Union Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs.
Mozambique led the meeting, where it was discussed the 11th European Development Fund (EDF 11), focusing essentially in the areas of employment, professional qualification and social inclusion, culture and development. Some projects from the 10th European Development Fund are still active, namely in the areas of professional training (headed by Cape Verde) and the governmental elections for Guinea-Bissau.
PALOP- TL Group
The program “PALOP-TL” was launched in 1992, following the manifested will of the Heads of State and Governments of the PALOP in establishing a specific program of Cooperation with the European Union, in the aim of the Cotonou Agreement. Timor-Leste joined this program in 2005.
The program is based on political, historical, linguistic, cultural, social and economic existing bonds between the PALP-TL and the EU, as well as on the will and compromise in strengthening cooperation across several areas of mutual interest, as well as south-south Cooperation, in parallel with north-south Cooperation. Dili’s Declaration of February 2013, has come to reaffirm this commitment.
