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EU Directors-General discuss key development issues

  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Acting Director-General for Multilateral Affairs and Development Cooperation Igor Jukič took part in a meeting of EU Directors-General for development cooperation via a videoconference. The participants discussed the Team Europe initiatives, the European financial architecture for development, the assistance offered to partner countries in the fight against COVID-19, the Gender Action Plan, and the current situation in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries.

The Directors-General continued with the debate on the Team Europe initiatives that were already part of the meeting agendas in February and May this year. At this meeting, they confirmed the third set of Team Europe initiatives and touched on the related common challenges, such as financing, political direction and management of initiatives as well as their monitoring, reporting and communication. They also exchanged views on the proposed Team Europe initiatives in the neighbourhood. Acting Director-General Jukič pointed out Slovenia’s interest in participating in regional Team Europe initiatives on the issue of displaced persons from Afghanistan in neighbouring countries and on digitalisation in Latin America. Slovenia is already playing an active role in the U-LEAD programme in Ukraine.

The Directors-General went on to discuss the coordination, inclusion, effectiveness and visibility of the European financial architecture for development (EFAD) and considered the key steps for ensuring better access to vaccines and other measures in the fight against COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries (in particular through the ACT-Accelerator). Global solidarity and vaccine sharing, including the COVAX mechanism, were also at the forefront. 

As to the update on implementing the Gender Action Plan (GAP III), the focus was mainly placed on its implementation at national levels. The officials also reviewed the current situation in Afghanistan from a development and humanitarian perspective.