Mogadishu, 9 May 2014 – Your Excellency the President and Your Excellency Ambassador [Michele Cervone d’Urso, EU Special Envoy to Somalia], let me first begin by congratulating the European Union and its members states on Europe Day for being such a strong partner of Somalia.
Today was the meeting of the High Level Partnership Forum Executive Committee and we have taken stock together – international partners and the Federal Government – of the progress that we are making on all aspects in Somalia.
Our conclusion was that we are not satisfied ourselves: progress has not been fast enough or far enough, to meet what we want to do and also what Somalis want.
And we decided together the answer was that – together the President, the Federal Government of Somalia and the international community together – must go further and go faster in delivering what Somalis and Somalia need.
We have identified specific areas on which we will want to see progress by the time we meet at the end of June, before Ramadan. And I am very confident that with the international support that the Federal Government has and with the dedicated Parliament and parliamentarians that you have, I am very confident that together we shall deliver very specific things by the end of June.
We want to go further, we want to go faster, we do not want to stop, to delay, or to have any distractions that stop the progress.
End