European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela has attended the 21st Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) and EU Forum in Aruba, where EU institutions and the OCTs discussed closer cooperation and new investment plans, with the bloc pledging €999 million in new funding.
The Forum brought together Presidents and Prime Ministers from all 13 OCTs, alongside high-level representatives from Denmark, France and the Netherlands, the European Commission reported on Monday night.
It was followed by the first EU–OCT Investment Conference, which the organisation said included about 140 representatives from governments, financial institutions and the private sector.
“The OCTs and their one million EU citizens are part of the European family and Europe's frontline presence in the Arctic, the Caribbean and the Pacific,” Síkela said.
A key focus was work under the EU’s Global Gateway strategy — an EU framework for funding international infrastructure and development projects.
The European Commission has proposed increasing financial support for OCTs in the next EU budget cycle to €999 million, from €500 million.
Five programmes signed under Global Gateway
Síkela and OCT authorities signed five programmes during the Forum, the Commission said.
One is the StormWatch Initiative on disaster risk management, with €3 million allocated, under which Caribbean OCTs will join a regional effort linked to the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology.
The institute is to be supported to become a Copernicus Competence Centre in the Caribbean — connected to the EU’s Earth observation programme — with upgrades to forecasting and monitoring services.
A Caribbean regional programme worth €21 million was also signed, with activities covering food and nutrition security and work to protect, restore and manage biodiversity.
Other signed programmes included a €1.15 million intraregional project for the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and La Réunion focused on managing ungulates and predators, a biodiversity grant mechanism called BESTLIFE 2030 with about €3.90 million, and a €2 million partnership on culture across the 13 OCTs.
The OCTs–EU Forum is the EU’s highest-level annual dialogue platform with the territories, which are constitutionally linked to Denmark, France and the Netherlands and are located across the Atlantic, Arctic, Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.
