Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

is an island nation, part of the

Macaronesia Macaronesia (; ) is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlantic, North Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of North Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of list of islands in the Atlantic Oc ...

n group of islands of the Atlantic Ocean and was a Portuguese colony during the colonial era between 1460 and 1975. EU-Cape Verde relations are founded on the EU/Cape Verde Special Partnership, agreed in 2007, building on six pillars: *Good governance *Security/stability *Regional integration *Technical and Regulatory Convergence *Knowledge-based Society *The fight against poverty, and development. Following that, an Action Plan for Security and Stability was launched in 2014 and a Mobility Partnership. Cape Verde is a member of the

Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of twelve countries of West Africa. Collectively, the present and former members comprise an area ...

(ECOWAS), an African regional bloc, which aims for internal integration similar to that of the EU. Even though it does not yet participate in all of ECOWAS' activities, Cape Verde cannot have membership in both organizations at the same time. It is also a member of the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

, an organization aiming for a common currency in Africa, a single defense force for the African continent and an African Union

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

. In 2016, the Cape Verde government declared its intention to present ECOWAS with proposals for "special status" instead of full membership. Cape Verde is also one of the beneficiaries of the EU's regional cooperation programme with

Portuguese-speaking African countries The Portuguese-speaking African countries (; PALOP), also known as Lusophone Africa, consist of six African countries in which the Portuguese language is an official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Prínci ...

(PALOP): Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Membership

In March 2005, former Portuguese president

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portugal, Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the List of Presidents of P ...

launched a petition urging the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

to start membership talks with Cape Verde, saying the country could act as a bridge between Africa, Latin America, and the EU. Cape Verde's per capita GDP is lower than those of the current member states and candidate countries.

Freedom House Freedom House is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, Freedom (political), political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wi ...

in 2021 gave Cape Verde the maximum score for all aspects of ''Political Pluralism and Participation'' and ''Civil Liberties''. 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 The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

. Although the Cape Verde

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

is geographically part of Africa, there have been similar situations before.

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

is an island nation that, despite being geographically in Asia, has already joined both the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and the EU. Furthermore, the Cape Verde islands are part of the same archipelago as the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

(part of Spain),

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

(part of Portugal) and

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

(part of Portugal), known as

. There is currently no political recognition by the EU of Cape Verde as a European state. However, unlike in the case of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, there is no formal rejection either. Complementing Cape Verde's efforts to join the EU, the Macaronesian group of islands (the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands) have stated their support. The Atlantic group of islands are pushing for an entrance of Cape Verde into the EU under a special status.

References

External links

EU Relations with Cape Verde

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cape Verde - European Union Relations

Third-country relations of the European Union

Membership

See also

References

External links