The European Union has announced it is mobilising additional funds to support peace building in Colombia and the efforts to reintegrate former combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) into the Colombian society.
The provision of additional funds to support peace building will help to scale up concrete actions, such as new programmes that will foster economic activity and contribute to restoring ‘social fabric’ in conflict-affected areas.
The new funding was announced by Vice-President Federica Mogherini today at a high-level event on conflict resolution with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in Brussels.
During the event, key figures that were involved in the Colombian peace negotiations discussed how the EU can continue to support peace in Colombia.
Mogherini said: “The European Union has been at the side of Colombia since the very beginning of the peace process. Building peace takes courage and patience – to sit down and find a common ground. But we have believed in the capacity of the Colombians to find a way out of the conflict and we will continue to be at their side in all fields, to invest in sustainable peace. We have a lot to learn from the courage of the Colombians.”
Funding the peace building
This new assistance will be made available in the framework of the mid-term review of the EU’s bilateral aid to Colombia for the period 2018-2020.
It comes on top of the on-going assistance, which the EU has been providing towards peace building over the last 15 years.
In 2016, the EU launched a special EU Trust Fund worth €96.4m, to support of the peace agreement, and its measures are currently being implemented in rural and remote areas affected by the conflict.
Peacebuilding is at the heart of the EU’s cooperation with Colombia since 2002. During the last 15 years, the EU has supported the peacebuilding in Colombia with over €550m.
Around 614 projects in the areas of:
- Economic development;
- Human rights; and
- Democratic governance have benefitted 300,000 persons in 19 departments of Colombia.
