Cape Verde–European Union relations

Cape Verde–European Union relations
European Union	Cape Verde

Cape Verde

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Cape Verde
Constitution Human rights
Executive President Jorge Carlos Fonseca Prime Minister José Maria Neves
Legislature National Assembly President: Basílio Ramos
Judiciary Constitutional Court
Elections Recent elections Presidential: 2011 2016 Parliamentary: 2011 2016 Political parties PAICV MpD UCID
Administrative divisions Concelhos Freguesias
Foreign relations Relations with the EU
Other countries Atlas Politics portal

Cape Verde is an island nation, part of the Macaronesian group of islands of the Atlantic Ocean and was a former Portuguese colony during the colonial era between 1460 and 1975. In March 2005 former Portuguese president Mário Soares launched a petition urging the European Union to start membership talks with it, saying that Cape Verde could act as a bridge between Africa, Latin America and the EU.^[1]

Cape Verde is 97% Christian and its background is a fusion of African, Asian, European and South American backgrounds, where about 70%^[2] is African and mixed. Less than 30% is African,^[2] while about 1% is of unmixed European descent. Because of this, Cape Verdeans find it hard to define themselves as either mixed or Africans. They regard themselves as either both or as unique Cape Verdeans. Politically, Cape Verdeans also worked as part of the Portuguese administration,^[3] with independence leader Amílcar Cabral being part of the colonial administration in Guinea-Bissau and Angola.

Cape Verde's per capita GDP is lower than any of the current member states, accession countries, or candidate countries. However, it is higher than that of some of the EU-designated "potential candidate countries" of the Western Balkans like Bosnia and Herzegovina. In terms of respect of democracy the Freedom house report ranks Cape Verde top in Africa^[4] and again Cape Verde has a better ranking than that of some designated "potential candidate or member countries" of the EU: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania.^[5] Most of the imports and exports of Cape Verde are for and from the European Union, and it has a service-based economy. Its currency, the escudo, is pegged to the euro.^[6]^[7]

Although the Cape Verde archipelago is geographically in Africa, there have been similar situations before. Cyprus is an island nation which, despite being geographically in Asia, has already joined both the Council of Europe and the EU. Furthermore, the Cape Verde islands are part of the same island group as the Canary Islands (part of Spain), Madeira Islands (part of Portugal) and Azores Islands (part of Portugal), known as Macaronesia. There is currently no political recognition by the EU of Cape Verde as a European state, but unlike in the case of Morocco, there is no formal rejection either.

Cape Verde is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),^[8] an African regional bloc with aims for internal integration similar to those of the EU, and even though it has not yet participated in all of its activities, it cannot have membership in both organizations at the same time. It is also a member of the African Union, an organization aiming for a common currency in Africa, a single defense force for the African continent and an African Union head of state.

Recently Cape Verde has been distancing itself from its regional African partners and forging closer ties with the EU. In a move signaling its preparation to loosen ties with the West African regional bloc, the government of Cape Verde in September 2006 declared its intentions on suspending the ECOWAS free movement of goods and trade. Prime Minister José Maria Neves announced that his country will start imposing restrictions on the entrance of citizens from all ECOWAS member states. The Cape Verde government soon will present ECOWAS with proposals for "special status" instead of full membership.^[9] This is also an effort to limit the recent rise of illegal immigration of other West African nationals using Cape Verde and its proximity to the Canary Islands as a springboard towards Europe. Cape Verde is also a member of the Generalised System of Preferences with further incentives for good governance (GSP+).

Complementing Cape Verde's efforts to join the EU, the Macaronesian group of islands (the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands) are throwing their support for their regional brethren.^[10] The Atlantic group of Islands are pushing for an entrance of Cape Verde into the EU under a special status.^[11]

References

External links

Foreign relations of Cape Verde

Bilateral relations	Angola Brazil China Guinea Bissau United States

Multilateral relations	European Union

Diplomatic missions	Diplomatic missions of / in Cape Verde

Foreign relations of the European Union

Bilateral relations

Africa & the Middle East	Bahrain Cape Verde Iran Iraq Israel Jordan Lebanon Morocco Palestine† South Africa Syria Yemen

Americas	Argentina Brazil Canada Cuba Greenland Mexico United States

Asia-Pacific	Australia China (People's Republic of) India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Nepal North Korea Pakistan Philippines South Korea

Europe & Central Asia	Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia and Herzegovina Faroe Islands Georgia Iceland Kazakhstan Kosovo† Liechtenstein Macedonia‡ Moldova Monaco Montenegro Northern Cyprus (Turkish Republic of)† Norway Russia San Marino Serbia Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Vatican City

General	Members’ overseas territories Largest trading partners Association agreements Free trade agreements

†= Disputed state, may not be recognised as an independent state by some or all European Union members. ‡= Name disputed by Greece, EU recognises the Republic of Macedonia as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Multilateral relations and initiatives

Organisations	Arab League ASEAN ECHR G8 ICC United Nations

Initiatives	African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Asia–Europe Meeting CARIFORUM Customs Union Eastern Partnership Energy Community Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly European Common Aviation Area European Economic Area Euro-Mediterranean free trade area Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Euronest Economic Partnership Agreements EU CBRN Risk Mitigation CoE Initiative Neighbourhood Policy Northern Dimension Mediterranean Union Stabilisation and Association Process

Organisation

Policy	Common Foreign and Security Policy Economic Relations Everything but Arms Security and Defence Policy Enlargement

Actors	ECHO EuropeAid External Action Service Foreign Affairs Council High Representative Catherine Ashton Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Policy Instruments Service

Diplomatic missions	of the EU / to the EU Ambassadors Special Representatives

Military and security

Initiatives	Defence Initiative Synchronised Armed Forces Defence Procurement Petersberg tasks Helsinki Headline Goal

Structures	Political and Security Committee Military Committee Military Staff Operations Centre Security & Defence College Defence Agency Institute for Security Studies Satellite Centre Joint Situation Centre

Forces	European Union Force Eurofor Eurocorps EU Battlegroup EU Gendarmerie Force EU Maritime Force Deployments

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.