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Add to Preferred SourcesThe European Union is mobilising additional funds to support peacebuilding in Colombia and the efforts to reintegrate former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) into the Colombian society.
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 on May, 31 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.”
The 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 peacebuilding 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.
Original source: EC
Published on 31 May 2018