Cape Verde's pretensions of establishing a special partnership with the European Union are expected to become reality next year, but only following the forum European Union/Cape Verde: the challenges of the future, which has been proposed by Portuguese European Parliament deputy Josa Ribeiro e Castro.

According to well-positioned sources, Luxembourg has offered to host the forum following Cape Verde's January 22 legislative elections.

It was Luxembourg's Prime Minister himself, Jean-Claude Juncker, who expressed to Cape Verdean Prime Minister Josa Maria Neves his country's willingness to host the forum, in which all parts will be represented on the governmental level.

It has also been agreed that a technical meeting will take place prior to the forum in order to trace the outline of the special partnership.

All indications are that the security sector has been identified as the strongest link in this future partnership. According to A Semana Online sources, it is in the European Union's interest to contribute toward the strengthening of control conditions in terms of marine and air borders in order to keep Cape Verde from being transformed into the golden platform of drug and other types of trafficking.

Source: A Semana