The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marta Lucía Ramírez, signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding on an Agenda of enhanced political and sectoral dialogue and cooperation for the next decade’, in New York on Tuesday 21 September.
The Memorandum of Understanding identifies five priorities to guide the development of EU-Colombia relations. These are the implementation of the ambitious environment, climate change, resilience and biodiversity agenda, the economic and social agenda, including the digital agenda, and the solidarity agenda, around the migration crisis and Venezuelan refugees and its impact on Colombia and the region, as well as all aspects of migration.
The implementation of the multilateral agenda and cooperation on global and regional foreign policy issues to strengthen multilateralism and a rules-based world order and the successful implementation of the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are the other two priorities.
The protocol also lists 12 sectors in which cooperation can be increased and/or extended within the framework of the priorities. These include human rights, the fight against illegal drugs and organised crime, research and innovation, education and person-to-person contacts, transport, employment, and regional policy.
The EU and Colombia have had a trade agreement since 2013, a short-term visa waiver since 2015 and a framework agreement for participation in EU-led Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions, which entered into force in 2020.
See the Memorandum of Understanding: https://bit.ly/3CzupM9 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)