Belize's Minister of Foreign Affairs Eamon Courtney, on Monday, joined EU Ambassador to Belize Marianne Van Steen in Co-chairing the 8th EU political dialogue with Belize.
On the Agenda were good governance, human rights, the condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impact on food and energy security, and EU support for confidence-building measures in the Adjacency Zone between Belize and Guatemala.
But that wasn't all, among a host of other issues including climate change and the preparation of a new Global Financial pact Belize also expressed its desire to enter the Schengen visa waiver list.
But ahead of the political dialogue, 7News met the many EU ambassadors who are visiting this week at their EU in the Park event on Saturday. We took the opportunity to ask them what they expected from the negotiations. Here's more:
Marian Van Steen, EU Ambassador to Belize
"We want to come twice so when we were here in September last year we had a very interesting period with all the Ambassadors accredited to Belize but once a year we have a special political dialogue with the country and we always do that around diplomatic days when you have ambassadors from all over the world here and we said maybe, you know we really would like to have more time and it would be more EU if we could do the political dialogue at another moment. So, then we spoke with the Minister of foreign affairs and we agreed that it would be a better idea to find another moment."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Now there is a spotlight on Europe tomorrow where Minister Eamon Courtenay and perhaps the Prime Minister meet with you, what are some of the goals that Italy is trying to get across in these discussions tomorrow?"
Luigi De Chiara, Ambassador Of Italy
"Well actually there is not a special agenda the EU and Italy are very close to Belize and we are very close to Belize because we are very close to Central America, to the Caribbean and big problems here like Climate Change and so we are willing to help as much as we can and we have great cooperation in the United Nations framework and we are very happy of the results that this government has reached and I think there is more and more interest both in Rome and Brussels for cooperating and investing in Cooperation with Belize."
A press release from government alludes to Belize's push to tap the EU member states for much-needed funding. It says, quote: " The broader challenge of access to affordable and sustainable financing was also addressed. As such, Belize highlighted the importance of the ongoing discussion of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, which is expected to change the criteria for small island developing states to access concessional financing." end quote
