The meeting takes place one day alter the European Commission approved a document that Hill be sent to the Council of Europe to ratify - or reject - the terms of the relationship between Cape Verde and the European Union from now on.

Today's meeting between Neves and Durão Barroso takes place amidst major expectations, considering the announcement made yesterday in Lisbon by the president-in-exercise of the European Union, Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates, who considered the European Commission decision a "historic moment."

The words used by Sócrates hint that the special partnership between Cape Verde and the EU is practically a given, and that Portugal is proud to have contributed towards this. In any case, Sócrates also stressed that the main merit in the achievement of the special status for Cape Verde alongside the European Union belongs to Cape Verdeans, and in particular the Cape Verdean government.

Good governance, international credibility and the levels of development reached so far by Cape Verde are among the factors that, in José Sócrates' opinion, led the European Union to establish a relationship with Cape Verde of a sort previously unheard of in the history of the community.