Circular migration between Cape Verde and the European Union will effectively begin in January of 2009 and will last, in its initial phase, for three years, at a cost of 1.3 million euros, according to the site www.portugal-caboverde.com.

According to the on-line economic and financial news portal, European Commission officials and government ministers from Portugal, Spain, France and Luxembourg interested in a partnership aimed at facilitating the mobility of people between Cape Verde and the European Union signed a joint declaration in order to make the circulation of people within the EU space more flexible.

Through these mobility partnerships, according to the site, the European Union will engage in the coordinated management of migratory flows that is expected to allow both the EU and its partners to better confront the challenges they face in the area and take better advantage of existing opportunities.

"The partnerships for mobility, which are still in their pilot phase, are the new instruments aimed at lending concrete expression to the partnership between the EU and third countries aimed at assuring the shared and responsible management of migratory flows in the interest of the Union, its partners and the migrants themselves."

Cape Verde and Moldova are the first two countries with which the EU is embarking on the initiative, which, in the case of Cape Verde, reflects expectations that were not included in the Accord for the Special Partnership with the European Union.

The president of the Portuguese Development Support Institute (IPAD), Manuel Correia, says that Portugal is coordinating the project and will create a program to facilitate mobility. This "facilitation" will not mean the elimination of visa requirements between Cape Verde and European Union countries, nor an extraordinary legalization of illegal immigrants in those countries. "The idea id to help allow Cape Verde to take advantage of opportunities for the placement of qualified personnel in other countries or for Cape Verdean émigrés currently living in European countries and who wish to establish themselves temporarily in Cape Verde and return to the European country in question when they want to," he explains.

The partnership also calls for initiatives aimed at taking advantage of the possibilities offered by migration in order to promote development and, in particular, favor the Cape Verdean diaspora's contribution to the development of the islands by facilitating the transfer of capital and circular migration