The EU’s Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), are located in the Atlantic, Antarctic, Arctic, Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific. They have constitutional links to Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Five cooperation programmes benefitting EU’s OCTs has been signed today at the 17th OCT-EU Forum in Tahiti. The budget amounts to 44 million euro. The agreements signed include an €18 million programme for climate change mitigation and sustainable energy.

The EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, present at the forum, highlighted how the EU’s OCTs territories are of strategic importance for the planet’s sustainable development and the biodiversity conservation. The new programmes launched in this forum today aims at tackling climate change, increase people’s living standards and create sustainable job opportunities.