Statement by European Union ambassador to TT, PETER CAVENDISH, on the occasion of Europe Day today
TRINIDAD and Tobago and the EU can boast of 48 years of strong partnership, and as the special 50th anniversary approaches, we can reflect upon the similarity between TT’s motto, Together we Aspire, Together we Achieve and the EU’s motto, United in Diversity.
We are proud that our close partnership and bilateral relations with TT and with the nations and regional institutions of the richly diverse Caribbean rest on a solid foundation of shared values, like-mindedness and co-operation.
The EU is particularly happy that since 2015 Trinidadians/Tobagonians may go freely to Europe under the Schengen, visa-free scheme. Further, under the Economic Partnership Agreement, TT has access to a market of 448 million Europeans and its products are very welcomed.
In the last year, the EU hosted a summit with the Latin American and Caribbean community at which a global partnership on many key issues was renewed – including for the great challenges of our time, climate change and the green economy, and digital transition.
The voice of TT was heard at the summit and since then our bilateral co-operation, including within the framework of regional initiatives, has been further enriched.
Further, we cannot forget, in the year in which TT chairs the 78th UN General Assembly, how much this country has strongly advocated for the territorial sovereignty of states. TT's and like-minded countries’ diplomats work internationally seeking to promote fundamental values and rights – which are in legal fact committed to by all members of the UN family.
Let me emphasise that the EU has heard the voice of TT and those of other countries regionally and elsewhere, including on the need for reform of the international financial and banking order, and the future evolution of those arrangements.
This evolution has to address the future financing of climate mitigation actions. The Small Island Developing States Conference to take place this month in Antigua and Barbuda is very relevant to the near-term future evolution.
The European Union wishes to diversify its energy sources and happily TT is blessed with resources that could be sustainably developed and capitalised for greener energy, in co-operation with EU stakeholders, such as wind and sun as energy sources and the production of green hydrogen.
In terms of digital connectivity, we are approaching a deeper level of exchange with the extension of the super-connectivity cable called BELLA, which stands for Building the Europe Links with Latin America. The objective of this cable is to connect educational and research networks (ERNs), as an example the University of West Indies and the University of TT together with third-level bodies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere in the Caribbean region.
Just as TT's first prime minister Eric Williams recognised with his historic vision that the future of the nation, and I would add any nation’s, is in the children’s school bags, we reco
