Portugal's government says it is willing to convert member states' debt into support for the environmental transition, as is the case with Cape Verde, the Portuguese prime minister said on Sunday at the summit of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP)..

Speaking during the restricted session of the 14th conference of the Lusophone organization, which is taking place this Sunday in São Tomé, António Costa said that Portugal is available to "work with each of the CPLP member states to also convert the debt into an investment fund in the environment, in energy, in water, in recycling, in order to speed up this transition".

The starting point for this proposal is to work "on the basis of a pilot project" that Portugal has started with Cape Verde: the "creation of the Climate and Environment Fund", which will be formally approved by Praia in October, explained the minister. In this project, "Portugal has committed itself to converting Cape Verde's debt into investment in environmental transformation".

The Portuguese Prime Minister also advocated an academic exchange programme that would allow people to spend a semester in another country in the organization.

"That between now and 2026, we can manage to have at least one course in our different countries where we are all certified so that we can have, at CPLP level, an attendance like the European Erasmus program," said António Costa in his speech at the summit in São Tomé, calling this new project 'Frátria', in an evocation of Caetano Veloso's expression 'Mátria'.

The aim is, "at least in each of the courses, in each of the universities, in each of our countries, to have a recognized semester so that our young people can circulate more between all our countries," said the Portuguese leader, who mentioned his personal origin for the idea of this project.