Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen launched today a Regional Teachers' Initiative in Africa and for Africa, a €100 million investment from the EU budget in empowering the world's fastest growing youth population through quality education.

The European Commission has signed a contribution agreement with the European Space Agency to build a national Copernicus data centre in the Philippines, the first of its kind in South-East Asia.

Ahead of the International Day of Education on 24 January, the European Commission and High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell made a joint statement.

On 24-25 January, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, and Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, will visit Southern Africa to enhance ties between the EU and Namibia and mark the 33rd anniversary of the EU-Namibia Partnership.

In 2020, coinciding with the beginning of the pandemic, which had a dramatic impact on trade, the EU and its Member States collectively invested €23 billion in Aid for Trade. A wide variety of EU Aid for Trade programmes have been put in place to assist partner countries in facing the recovery.

EU Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen will speak today, 10 January, at the Annual Conference of Spanish Ambassadors. As the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Ms Urpilainen oversees the European Commission’s work on international cooperation.

The 2022 Annual Report on the implementation of the EU's External Action Instruments in 2021 is now out and will soon also be available in other 23 languages.

The European Commission has opened three global calls for proposals to strengthen civil society organisations in partner countries, to further enable them to effectively contribute to good governance, democratic processes, peace, stability, sustainable development and inclusive growth.

The Operational Board of the European Fund for Sustainable Development plus (EFSD+) has today given a positive opinion to €6.05 billion in financial guarantees to support 40 investment programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin American and Asia Pacific.