The mayor of Vila Real de Santo António presented, yesterday, at the Committee on Citizenship, Governance and Institutional and External Affairs (Civex) of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union (EU), the results and proposals of the EU support mission carried out in Portugal, with the aim of developing a primary health care network in Libya.
According to mayor Luís Gomes, who was mandated by the Committee of the Regions and the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (Arlem) to coordinate and direct the mission, “the work carried out in VRSA is already a success and marks the beginning of a process of cooperation for the reconstruction of Libyan territory, contributing to a safer Mediterranean and strengthening the European neighborhood policy'.
Among the various projects on the table, it was agreed between the municipality of VRSA and the Libyan authorities to start preparing a set of local health charters in Libyan municipalities, with the Portuguese Nurses Association having shown equal willingness to develop training modules in the ground.
Likewise, the VRSA municipality made itself available to that Mediterranean country to collaborate in the construction of a network of primary health care and in the development of local proximity projects, similar to what has been implemented in the municipality in recent years. 10 years, particularly in the field of ophthalmology.
In addition to these goals, based on a bottom-up approach, the two countries are preparing a cooperation protocol to put the know-how from the care network of the VRSA psychological intervention center to the Libyan health services, taking into account the need to respond to post-war trauma.
To secure the funds to implement these strategies, Luís Gomes, who is a member of Civex, has already requested the support of the European External Action Service (EEAS), a diplomatic body of the European Union that gives a voice to European citizens in the rest of the world.
The President of the Chamber of VRSA will also request the collaboration of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), an intergovernmental organization that brings together the 28 countries of the European Union and 15 countries of the south and east coast of the Mediterranean and aims to strengthen dialogue in the Euro-region. Mediterranean.
The Portuguese mission also has the support of the High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, and is part of the Nicosia Strategy.
About the mission:
Following the granting of observer status to Libya under the Union for the Mediterranean, the Committee of the Regions has been in contact with Libyan local authorities since July 2015, in light of the first meeting organized by UNSMIL in Brussels (March 2015). XNUMX), bringing together various mayors with a view to supporting the UN.
Thus, before the Arlem Committee plenary session, held in Nicosia, on January 19, 2016, several Libyan mayors and political representatives sent to CoR President Markku Markkula defined a list of priorities to, in collaboration with the Committee, start a process of partnership and know-how sharing.
Nicosia's strategy is, therefore, an action of diplomacy based on a bottom-up approach, through which cooperation partnerships are sought in the form of seminars or fieldwork, as an example of this working visit. will be performed in VRSA.
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