ORANJESTAD, Aruba – During his working visit in Aruba, Prime Minister of St. Maarten William Marlin, and the rest of the St. Maarten delegation attended the 15th OCT-EU Forum.
The core objective of this forum was to bring together the OCT Authorities with their Member State, members from the European Commission, members from the European Parliament, the European Investment Bank (EIB), and when appropriate as in this case, members of the Outermost Regions and other Regional Organizations for dialogue.
During the Forum, the Joint Position on the guiding principles of the post 2020 EU-OCT partnership and Political Declarations of the OCTA Ministerial Conference the previous day, were presented to the European Commission.
A panel was also convened at the political level where Prime Minister of St. Maarten Marlin took part in the discussion on Renewable Energy: A Key Driver for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth along with representatives from eight other global OCTs.
In the side-lines of this forum, the St. Maarten delegation also had the opportunity to convene a bilateral discussion with Director of Development Coordination Latin America and the Caribbean Jolita Butkeviciene and her team. During this meeting, St. Maarten was given the opportunity to further discuss the programmes under the responsibility such as the 10th and 11th EDF Territorial Programmes, the St. Martin/St. Maarten Territorial Cooperation Programme and the 11th EDF Caribbean Regional Programme.
This meeting also provided an opportunity to solidify and gain assurances with regard to St. Maarten’s partnership with Directorate General for Development Cooperation.
The next OCT-EU Conference is tentatively slated for February 2018 in Brussels, Belgium.
