As part of the Commission’s outreach strategy to build and foster partnerships, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (pictured), starts today (19 February) a two-day visit to Bridgetown, Barbados. She will meet with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley and attend the 48th Regular Session of the Conference of CARICOM. The aim is to strengthen the EU´s presence in the region and to lay the groundwork for the EU-CELAC Summit planned for the last quarter of 2025.
This visit should be seen in the context of recent agreements with Mercosur, Mexico and Malaysia. Further outreach visits to India and South Africa are scheduled for the near future. The EU-Central Asia Summit will take place in April.
At CARICOM in Barbados, leaders will discuss the privileged partnership between the European Union and the Caribbean. President von der Leyen and the CARICOM Heads of State will equally discuss the geopolitical outlook, the fight against climate change and increased trade and investment between the regions.
On Wednesday, the President will first meet with Prime Minister Mottley for a bilateral meeting. They will hold a press conference, which will be broadcast on EBS. In the afternoon, President von der Leyen will attend the opening ceremony of the CARICOM conference. Her speech will be broadcast live on EBS.
On Thursday, President von der Leyen will attend the closed session of the Heads of Government of CARICOM and hold bilateral meetings.
During the visit, the President will witness the signing or launch of four Global Gateway projects: 1) an agreement on cooperation between BioMed X, a biomedical research institute in Germany, and Barbados; 2) ‘Renewstable’, the first green hydrogen storage project in the Caribbean, in partnership with Hydrogene de France; 3) the launch by Lithuania, Guyana and Barbados of a project on access to pharmaceutical products; and 4) an agreement on high speed digital connectivity with the Caribbean Telecommunications Union and Hispasat, a Spanish telecommunications company.
