The statement is from the head of the European Union delegation to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Jean-Marc Châtaigner made it in his speech on the occasion of Europe Day on May 9, 2026, in Yaoundé.
The European Union’s historic commitment to Cameroon is reflected in concrete development actions, investments in various fields for over 50 years. Today, the partnership between the EU and Cameroon looks to the future with a collective project. In this context, the EU intends to place young people and women at the heart of its action, aligning with the policy of the Cameroonian Head of State. This orientation appears in the speech of the ambassador, head of the European Union delegation to Cameroon, delivered on the occasion of the Europe Day celebration on May 9, 2026, at the Hilton Hotel in Yaoundé.
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In his remarks, H.E. Jean-Marc Châtaigner indicated that the infrastructure projects the EU is carrying out in Cameroon are not just physical structures. They are vectors of integration, growth, and opportunities. “We place the expectations of young people and women at the heart of our action,” declared the head of the delegation, emphasizing the intervention areas. These concern the problems of young people and women. Among others, they include “access to decent jobs, digital development, entrepreneurship, training, innovation in agriculture, and the green economy.”
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The reason for this commitment lies in the fact that, according to the EU, the future of Cameroon, like that of Europe, is first played out in its youth. And because development is not a cost, but rather an investment in the common future.
To this end, the delegation has developed a multi-year communication and public diplomacy strategy based on proximity with young people, youth associations, artists, and web influencers. One of the communication campaigns called “Na Weti” is part of this new approach to communication and public diplomacy. For the ambassador, head of the delegation, Cameroon is a perspective, an extraordinary human wealth made up of young students, young female students. There are people who have business ideas, doctors, teachers. “These people must not leave for Canada, or cross the Mediterranean. They must stay to work for their country, and we must work together to enrich all these possibilities,” the ambassador said.
According to the IRCC ranking cited by the newspaper Ecomatin, as of September 1, 2025, Cameroon ranks 4th in the top 10 countries of origin of new permanent residents in Canada with 10,355 new permanent residents. Earlier, between January and April 2024, at least 6,000 Cameroonians immigrated to Canada, according to the president of the Cameroon Business Group (Gecam), Célestin Tawamba. These departures had already brought the number of Cameroonians who made this journey between 2019 and 2024 to nearly 20,000 people, according to our colleagues at TeleAsu.
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