30 years of cooperation | Relations between the EU and Algeria are set to enter a new phase
The number of high-level visits by senior EU officials to Algeria over the last few years is testament of the desire between Brussels and Algiers to deepen their relationship, suggests Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra. Writing in this special EU-Algeria supplement, Lamamra says that the visits by EU chiefs, such as EU enlargement and European neighbourhood policy commissioner Štefan Füle, foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and commission president José Manuel Barroso are indicative “of the desire of both parties to give fresh impetus to our collaborative relations, thanks in particular, to better use of the association agreement”. Eight years after the implementation of the association agreement, “relations between Algeria and the EU have intensified and diversified,” he says. Lamamra adds that relations are such that, “some truly promising new prospects are opening up which will serve to deepen and widen these relations, particularly in favour of Algeria’s participation in the renewed European neighbourhood policy.