"The draft resolution on the mobility agreement in the CPLP has been approved, and the final agreement will be approved at the summit of heads of state and government of the CPLP, which will take place in Luanda next year," announced the Cape Verde foreign minister.
Luís Filipe Tavares spoke to the press at the end of the Council of Ministers, which met by videoconference, and was presided over from the city of Praia by Cape Verde, the country that holds the rotating presidency of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).
The minister pointed out that the proposal presented by Cape Verde deserved consensus from all member states, and the ministers are now at the drafting stage of the final document.
This final document will be ratified next year in Luanda at the summit that was supposed to take place last July, but which was postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic and, consequently, Cape Verde remained in the presidency for another year.
"There is consensus among the nine member states on Cape Verde's proposal. It is already a significant step. We have made a great contribution to affirming the citizenship of the CPLP and this is what the people were waiting for," said the minister.
The head of Cape Verdean diplomacy said that "there is absolutely nothing missing" from the agreement, except the approval by the heads of state and government of the CPLP.
For the minister, it is a "very extensive" and "very important" agreement, which takes into account the commitments that all countries have in their respective regional frameworks.
"We take all of this into due consideration, but what I can say is that we made a good agreement. The mobility project will greatly facilitate the movement of people and goods within the framework of the nine CPLP member states," reinforced Luís Filipe Tavares, as acting president of the CPLP Council of Ministers.
According to the proposal, member states should seek to "create the conditions to progressively move towards higher levels of mobility".
The proposal also enshrines variable modalities so that states can adapt the mobility model and speed of an implementation plan in line with their reality, and makes it possible to select the types of passports that can enter a member state, explained the Cape Verde ambassador in Lisbon, Eurico Monteiro, in January.
During the virtual meeting, the ministers also reappointed Incanha Intumbo as executive director of the International Portuguese Language Institute (IILP) and approved the budgets for both this institution and the executive secretariat for next year.
The resolution for the new headquarters agreement with Portugal was also approved, which allows the organization several savings, namely in taxes and fees, said those responsible.
The minister said it is the "very important" agreement for the Portuguese-speaking organization, which will allow the executive secretariat and the meetings that are taking place in Lisbon, which hosts the CPLP headquarters.
"Reaffirmation of Cooperation in the CPLP in the context of the covid-19 pandemic" was the theme of this that was the first meeting of the Council of Ministers after the beginning of the pandemic.
The Council of Ministers is composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Affairs of the nine member states of the CPLP.
The CPLP includes Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.
Cape Verde assumed the pro tempore presidency of the CPLP in July 2018, at the Conference of Heads of State and Government, held in Santa Maria, on the island of Sal.
