The additional funding of €15 million will help to scale up concrete actions, such as new programmes that will foster economic activity and contribute to restoring social fabric in conflict-affected areas.
The new funding was announced by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini today at a high-level event on conflict resolution with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in Brussels. At the event, key figures that were involved in the Colombian peace negotiations debated on how the EU can continue to support a sustainable peace process in Colombia.
High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini stated: “The European Union has been at the side of Colombia since the very beginning of the peace process. Building peace takes courage and patience – to sit down and find a common ground. But we have believed in the capacity of the Colombians to find a way out of the conflict and we will continue to be at their side in all fields, to invest in sustainable peace. We have a lot to learn from the courage of the Colombians.”
Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica added: “The EU’s additional assistance of €15 million will support the Colombian people in ensuring that the remarkable progress made towards lasting peace is continued. It will support the reintegration process of ex-FARC members at social, political and economic level, and allow them to transition into civilian life.”
Today’s new assistance will be made available in the framework of the mid-term review of the European Union’s bilateral aid to Colombia for the period 2018-2020. It comes on top of the on-going assistance, which the EU has been providing towards peace building over the last 15 years. In 2016, the EU launched a special EU Trust Fund worth €96.4 million, to support of the peace agreement, and its measures are currently being implemented in rural and remote areas affected by the conflict.
Background
Peacebuilding is at the heart of the EU’s cooperation with Colombia since 2002. During the last 15 years, the EU has supported the peacebuilding in Colombia with over €550 million.
A total of 614 projects in the areas of economic development, human rights and democratic governance, have benefitted 300.000 persons in 220 municipalities in 19 departments of Colombia.
Since 2012, the EU has geared its cooperation through budget support operations to foster reforms in Colombia’s rural development policy (€70 million), local sustainable development in marginalised areas (€20 million) and support for regional competitiveness (€30 million).
The EU Trust Fund (EUTF) was formally established in December 2016 in the presence of President Santos and with the participation of 19 contributing Member States (Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom). The total amount is €96.4 million, with €71,4 million from the EU’s Development Cooperation Instrument, €2 million from the EU’s department for humanitarian assistance (DG ECHO) and €23 million from 19 EU Member States.
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