OCTA

Overseas Countries
and Territories Association

News friends of the OCTS en

Official launch of the “Friends of the OCTs” group

Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Greenland, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saba, Saint-Barthelemy, Sint Eustatius, Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon, Sint Maarten, French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF), Wallis and Futuna

OCTA coorganised with MEPs, Ms. Samira Rafaela and Mr. Stéphane Bijoux, the official launch of the ‘Friends of the OCTs‘ group in the European Parliament, on 29 June 2021 from 15:00 to 16:30 (Brussels time).

Ms. Rafaela and Mr. Bijoux are Co-Chairs of this EU/OCT Friendship Group in the Parliament.

With the aim of raising awareness among as many European actors as possible on the added value of the Partnership between the EU and the OCTs, as members of the European family, this webinar offered participants a virtual tour of the diversity of territories, from the poles to the tropics.

Several key figures from the EU institutions and the OCTs participated, highlighting the novelties of the EU/OCT partnership for the period 2021-2027 and the valuable diversity of OCTs. The webinar included the presentation of the MEPs and a  message from Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, followed by presentations and interviews with Greenlandic and Caribbean stakeholders. The webinar was closed by an artistic sequence through a traditional Polynesian music/dance performance.

 

If you would like to see the presentations, please click on the Agenda items to download them.

The recording of the webinar – with timestamps to jump between presentations – can be watched here:

 

Agenda:

 

| 15:00 – 15:30 |

Opening statement by MEP Samira Rafaela
Video message from Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen
Statement by MEP Stéphane Bijoux
Video message from OCTA chair Thierry Santa

Video – OCTs around the world

| 15:30 – 15:40 | 

Presentation of Rasmus Wendt, Head of Division, Ph.D. – Ministry
for  Agriculture, Self-Sufficiency, Energy and Environment, Government of Greenland

| 15:40 – 15:50 |

Presentation of Luis Gonzalez– University of Curaçao

| 15:50 – 16:00 |

Statement by Jolita Butkeviciene, Director DG INTPA

| 16:00 – 16:05 |

Concluding remarks by MEP Samira Rafaela

| 16:05 – 16:15 |

Closure
Traditional music/dance performance / Pacific/French Polynesia