Samoa has been a member of the African Caribbean Pacific grouping since 1975, since when it has received some €130m in assistance from the EU. 

Political dialogue

The EU's political dialogue with Samoa focuses on:

• protecting  its vulnerable environment, especially in relation to climate change
• defending human rights and gender issues.

 

The EU and Samoa are discussing how to collaborate more closely in multilateral fora on these and other issues.

 

Aid and cooperation

The Country Strategy Paper for 2008-13 provides a budget of €31m from the 10^thEuropean Development Fund (EDF), with an extra €6 million for good performance as assessed at the mid-term review in 2011.

The main focus areas for EU assistance and cooperation are:

• water and sanitation (with sector budget support)
• hunger reduction (from the Millennium Development Goals-Initiative)
• climate change (under the Global Climate Change Alliance, specifically for the water sector).

 

Samoa also benefits from:

• The Civil Society Support Programme (€3m) in collaboration with Australia
• the Media for Democracy and Human Rights programme (€193,334) of the European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights.

 

The EU welcomes Samoa's initiative to reserve parliamentary seats for women and hope that this will also inspire other countries in the Pacific region and elsewhere.