The Government of Liberia and the European Union (EU) met on May 20 for the 10th edition of the EU-Liberia Political Dialogue.
This meeting was held under Article 8 of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States, which enables the establishment of a platform for regular and comprehensive political dialogue.
The 10th EU-Liberia Political Dialogue was co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah and the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Liberia, Ambassador Laurent Delahousse.
Both parties discussed a selected number of issues of mutual interest, including EU-Liberia development cooperation over the 2021-2027 cycle, Good Governance, Mutual Accountability and Transparency, Human Rights, Foreign policy cooperation on regional multilateral issues among others.
This year’s discussion on human rights followed up on the conclusions of the most recent session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Liberia with a particular emphasis on the fight against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and on the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM), after the suspension announced by the Traditional Chiefs and Elders of Liberia last February 2022 for a period of three years.
The Government of Liberia also updated the European Union and its Member States on its ongoing legal review in view of the legal abolition of the death penalty.
To mark the strong foreign policy cooperation between the European Union and the Republic of Liberia building on our joint efforts multilaterally and regionally to promote peace, human rights, the values of liberal democracy and respect for international rule of law, for the first time a standalone agenda point on foreign policy is included in the meeting agenda.
Both parties will renew their condemnation of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in violation of international law and reaffirm their support for the transition processes to return to constitutional democratic order in the Republics of Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, in close collaboration with ECOWAS.
The Liberian delegation included members of the Cabinet and Heads of Agencies and Authorities. The Delegation of the European Union included Ambassadors and Chargés d’Affaires of the Member States represented in Liberia (France, Sweden, Germany and Ireland) as well as the Ambassador of Belgium to Liberia, based in Côte d’Ivore
