The Diplomat
Spain and Italy agreed yesterday to deepen their agenda of common interests in international cooperation for development and shared other common priorities, according to a note distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following a telematic meeting between the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Ángeles Moreno Bau, and the Italian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Marina Sereni.
At the meeting, which forms part of the contacts that Ángeles Moreno has been maintaining with her European counterparts, they also discussed the need to promote digitalisation in developing countries and support for partner countries to facilitate the incorporation of information technologies into their education systems.
The meeting, in which they agreed that their teams would meet regularly, took place in the context of the current programming of the European development cooperation budget for the period 2021-2027.
Moreover, the meeting followed the bilateral Italian-Spanish summit last November, where an understanding was reached on key issues such as cooperation in the field of migration and development in the Maghreb, West Africa and the Sahel.
As she did with the rest of her European colleagues, Ángeles Moreno spoke with Marina Sereni about the ‘Team Europe’ initiative, presented by Spain to the European Commission. The initiative advocates “advancing the external dimension of the future European Union Pact on Migration and Asylum, including comprehensive migration policies that promote safe, orderly and legal migration, prevent human trafficking and smuggling and include measures that favour the human and economic development of the populations of origin and transit”.
They also analysed the European Union’s new Neighbourhood and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), which dedicates 10 percent of European cooperation funds to migration issues. In the ministry’s opinion, this represents “decisive support for promoting actions in the countries of the southern neighbourhood and the Sahel, priority geographical areas of cooperation for Spain and Italy”.
In its communiqué, the Foreign Ministry recalls that Spain and Italy are part of the Sahel Alliance, which is now chaired by the head of the Ministry, Arancha González Laya. The government currently has 94 bilateral projects underway in the Sahel worth 105 million euros, including actions such as “GAR-SI Sahel” (Rapid Action Group for Surveillance and Intervention in the Sahel), in which the Guardia Civil and the Italian Carabinieri are participating.
Finally, Ángeles Moreno and Marina Sereni followed up on the universal and equitable vaccination plan against COVID-19 through the multilateral COVAX initiative.
