In 2025, we are celebrating ten years since the establishment of the EU Liaison Office in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This year also marks two historical landmarks – the 75th anniversary of the birth of the unified Europe project with the Schuman Declaration and 20 years of EU-Iraq cooperation – making it an ideal moment to reflect on the attributes that unite us.
Celebrating diversity
Firstly, we celebrate the diversity of our people. The EU’s motto is “United in Diversity.” Like the people of the Kurdistan Region, Europeans come from diverse backgrounds, stories, and aspirations; we speak numerous languages and celebrate a rich variety of traditions and religious beliefs. We are united by the understanding that we are stronger when we stand together, and that values like the respect for human dignity, freedom, equality, the rule of law, and human rights will help us prevail in the long run.
Perhaps just as much as it is a description, our motto is also a prescription. Our unity in diversity is a continuous, long-term aspiration, an ongoing project that, just like the EU, is still unfolding. While our diversity may be a given, our unity is not: we need to strive for, nurture, and consolidate it every day through our actions. In the challenging world of today, our unity enhances our future opportunities and is an essential condition for long-term stability and security.
In our partner countries, the EU and the EU member states promote coordination and concerted action as a form of unity via “Team Europe” initiatives. In the Kurdistan Region, for instance, the European representatives show solidarity among themselves and with our local partners. During a visit organized with our UN Population Fund partners, EU colleagues expressed their support and gained a deeper understanding of the needs of women affected by different forms of violence.
In a similar gesture of solidarity, representatives of EU member states, together with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Education Alan Hama-Saeed Salih and KRG Department of Foreign Relations Head Safeen Dizayee planted 12 olive trees at a public school in May 2025, thus promoting a message in support of the role of education and environmental awareness. Small gestures, when nurtured, can grow into impactful initiatives.
Resilience in the face of hardship
The resilience of our people, especially when faced with hardship, is the second trait we share. Jean Monnet, one of the masterminds behind the EU project, famously said that “Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.”
Scarred by the atrocities of totalitarianism, Europeans vowed to build peace at home and abroad. Likewise, the Kurds rose repeatedly from the ashes of the hatred that wounded them; in recent years, they have succeeded in building a prosperous home. Today, as we all witness a new era of intense geostrategic rivalries, it is increasingly clear that, while we may still enjoy peace at home, this is not the case for some of our neighbors. The EU and Kurdistan Region, as an important component of Iraq, are agents of stability and peace. This is a time to deepen alliances between those partners that, like us, understand the merit of a world based on rules, order, and mutual respect.
Mutual respect and appreciation
Mutual respect and appreciation represent the third asset we share, serving as the foundation of our robust cooperation. This is why the EU is present in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with the full breadth of tools and partnerships at our disposal.
We have a dynamic institutional framework, established in 2012 by our Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Iraq – a platform for cooperation in the fields of trade and investment, development, energy, and human rights and democracy. Our exchanges in these fields are brought together through a political dialogue format at the ministerial level: the EU-Iraq Cooperation Council.
A new era of cooperation
The Fourth Council session convened on October 19 in Luxembourg. Co-chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, the session also benefited from the attendance of the KRG Department of Foreign Relations Head Safeen Dizayee. Relations between the EU and Iraq have entered a new chapter, moving from post-conflict stabilization to sustainable economic development, closely reflecting the Iraqi government’s priorities.
This renewed partnership is taking shape in several key areas.
In the field of development cooperation, the EU and Kurdistan Region cooperate on green job creation, economic diversification, human development, and digital participatory governance and democracy, to name just a few. More concretely, the EU finances various projects such as capacity building for civic actors; improving employment prospects in the private sector for young Iraqis, including returnees; supporting economic reforms for a better investment and business climate; and supporting job creation and technical education in the agri-business sector.
Regarding banking and investments, the recent establishment of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Iraq and the negotiations to bring the European Investment Bank to Iraq illustrate this new direction. These steps signal deeper economic integration and long-term confidence in Iraq’s economic future.
The EU is also contributing significantly to Iraq’s security sector. The EU Advisory Mission has a permanent presence in Erbil and advises regional authorities on the civilian aspects of Security Sector Reform, covering command and control, counter-terrorism and violent extremism, and combating organized crime such as narcotics trafficking.
Humanitarian focus
In the field of humanitarian aid, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations office in Erbil focuses on people that are particularly vulnerable and assists the remaining 1.1 million internally displaced individuals in obtaining basic civil documentation, as well as with the provision of education services. The EU acknowledges the great contribution of the Kurdistan Region in hosting many of these displaced families on its territory. Migration remains a central pillar of EU-Iraq cooperation, including the Kurdistan Region. To address its root causes, the EU finances projects that foster the conditions enabling people, especially youth, to develop and thrive at home.
Not least, the EU and the Kurdistan Region understand the immense societal benefits of supporting and enabling the potential of young people and of empowering women. Earlier this year I attended the inauguration of the Zainab Khan Institute in Koy Sanjaq. The event revealed the contribution that this early Kurdish poet had not only on the cultural and spiritual life of the Kurds, but also on youth and women in general. In the early 1900s, her verses announced: “If the man is a voice, the woman is a language.” We unite our voices in tribute to Kurdish trailblazers, whose resilience and creativity illuminate our shared values:
A flower grows,
Her mellow petals carve the timeworn rocks.
A path emerges through the Zagros core,
