Mediterranean Dialogue

Portugal, a strategic triangle for cooperation and political dialogue

At the beginning of this week, David Henneberger, Head of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation Madrid office and Odilia Abreu, Senior Project Manager Mediterranean Dialogue travelled to Portugal, one of our project countries, in order to meet liberal policy makers, partners and German institutions, as well as to participate in the Conference “Strategic Triangle: Africa, Europe and Latin America”, organized by its Portuguese partner Institute for the Promotion of Latin America and the Caribbean (IPDAL).

The two-days conference on the Strategic Triangle included high-level panels on new geopolitical perspectives, multi-lateral financing mechanisms and economic growth and panels on African and triangular dialogue. Odilia Abreu participated as speaker in the  panel “The Role of Science and Innovation in Latin American, African and European companies”, where she had the opportunity to showcase the work carried out by FNF towards the strengthening of female participation in the tech and innovation sectors, highlighting the FNF Madrid office initiative: Euthenia, the Mediterranean Executive Women Community.

The FNF Madrid office had the opportunity to hear about the challenges and opportunities that Iniciativa Liberal (the Portuguese Liberal party) is facing in a meeting with its recently elected President and MP, Rui Rocha together with the IL team- Rodrigo Saraiva, MP; and António Costa Amaral, International Officer.  At the end of January, Iniciativa Liberal  held a National Convention with the aim to elect four (4) organs of the party: Council of Jurisdiction; Supervisory Council; National Gouverning council and the Presidency of the executive committee (President of the party). Rui Rocha was elected the President of Iniciativa Liberal with 51.7% of the votes. FNF and Iniciativa Liberal agreed on a series of cooperation mechanisms throughout the year in the run-up for the European elections in 2024.

Furthermore, we held meetings with the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Julia Monar, to talk about the work carried out by the FNF Madrid office in Portugal. The partner trip concluded with meetings with Ricardo Silvestre, International Officer of Movimento Liberal Social (MLS) and with Paulo Neves and Filipe Domingues, IPDAL President and Secretary General, respectively, to talk about the relevance of the relations between Africa and Europe and to identify several action proposals.