Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 25 March, the EU announced the mobilisation of €160 million under the European Development Fund (EDF) to consolidate democracy, reinforce the rule of law, speed up economic recovery and improve living conditions in Guinea-Bissau.
This announcement was made at an international conference held in Brussels by the government of Guinea-Bissau, the EU and the United Nations Development Programme. The day before, the full resumption of cooperation between the EU and this Portuguese-speaking ACP country was made official, in light of the progress made last year on the path to democracy and the promised reforms (see EUROPE 11281).
“We want to encourage the positive trends we see and will support the new government in rebuilding the country, strengthening its democratic institutions and moving towards stability, reconciliation and economic development”, said Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs. Neven Mimica, the European commissioner for development, confirmed that the programming of the money available to Guinea-Bissau under the 11th EDF (for the period 2014-2020) was underway and that development cooperation would be aligned with “the priorities of the national development strategy” - specifically governance, security, justice, public administration, health and rural development. (Aminata Niang)