An interview to the Ambassador Fezas Vital on the “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding a Twelve Month Pilot Program to Build Intercultural Skills and Participate in Training at Innovative Organizations”, signed on February 11^th, 2019.

In the earliest years of the United States, after the American Revolutionary War, Portugal was the first neutral country to establish diplomatic relations with the United States in 1791. The relationship between these two countries has been honorable and reliable. Since 1944, Portugal has uninterruptedly supported the United States military aircraft by providing the Lajes Field in the Azores to facilitate counter-terrorism and humanitarian efforts. The United States is historically a destination for Portuguese emigration and the recent census estimated that more than 1.3 million people in this country have Portuguese origin. In the recent years, Portugal and the United States have also been promoting a bilateral relationship in science and technology by creating cooperation protocols between research institutions and universities in both countries.

To continue to build this bridge, a new historical event brings a new layer of cooperation and understanding between Portugal and the United States. On February 11^th, Ambassador Domingos Fezas Vital and Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce signed a Memorandum of Understanding Regarding a Twelve Month Pilot Program to Build Intercultural Skills and Participate in Training at Innovative Organizations.

Program: Up to 400 training, study, and work opportunities will be established in both the United States and Portugal in the areas of innovation, early-stage organizations or projects, and advanced manufacturing.

U.S. Program: Portuguese interns and trainees will gain experience in innovative American organizations at an early stage in their development and with companies pursuing advanced manufacturing. Prospective Portuguese participants in the U.S. Program who apply to come to the United States from Portugal will need to meet the selection criteria set forth under the Exchange Visitor Program to participate.

Portugal Program: U.S. participants will pursue work and study opportunities in Portugal for a period of up to 12 months in accordance with relevant Portuguese laws. U.S. applicants to the Portugal Program are expected to be enrolled in U.S. accredited classroom-based post-secondary institutions or be recent graduates (i.e., within 12 months of graduation).

Ambassador Fezas Vital, who played a vital role in this process, kindly accepted to talk to PAPS and answer a few questions about this historical Memorandum.

PAPS: What is the main goal of this Memorandum?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: The main goal of this Memorandum is to establish a framework between Portugal and the United States that further promotes people to people contacts and cultural exchanges, especially between the youth of both countries. Portugal and the U.S. have developed very close relations at all levels and, at the civil society level in particular, that relation has deepened over the past years. With this MoU, every year 400 Portuguese students and recent graduates can gain experience in the U.S. through internships in leading U.S. companies and live in the U.S. for up to 12 months; whereas an equivalent number of Americans will be able to travel and work in Portugal for also up to one year.

PAPS: How was this idea born and what were the main challenges during the ground work that led to the signing of this Memorandum?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: The goal of signing this agreement was born from regular consultations between the Directorate General for Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities and the USA Consulate General in Lisbon. We negotiated the agreement and reached a final text before the end of 2018. The negotiations themselves were smooth and quick because we share the same interest in promoting people to people contacts, which obviously led to a very constructive approach from both sides.

PAPS: The maximum duration allowed by this Memorandum is 12 months. Can Portuguese that were approved for this visa come back to the United States in the following years?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: Yes, but they must either enter as tourists or apply to another category of visa.

PAPS: This is a bilateral Memorandum. Is Portugal ready to open 400 positions in innovation and organizational growth and development to receive young Americans?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: The Memorandum establishes two different sets of programs for Portuguese nationals (U.S. Program) and U.S. Nationals (Portugal Program). The Portugal Program allows for U.S. citizens and legal residents to benefit from a cultural experience, to enjoy holidays and/or pursue work and study opportunities, in Portugal, for a period of up to 12 months. The work component may have a maximum duration of 6 months. U.S. participants in the Portugal Program may apply for work or training opportunities in different fields, including those of innovation and organizational growth.

PAPS: What will be the requirements for Portuguese institutions to be a part of this program?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: There are no specific criteria or requirements for Portuguese institutions to take part in the program. U.S. participants may pursue work or study opportunities in any institution that will be willing to accept them, according to their own entry requirements and/or specific needs.

PAPS: When do you anticipate this program will be completely implemented?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: Portuguese and U.S. youth are able to apply to this program since the date the MoU was signed. Obviously, both Portugal and the U.S. will promote the program through different channels so that people learn about it we can quickly reach the maxim number of 400 participants per year, per country. Previous MoUs of this kind have been quite successful in attracting foreigners for work and travel experiences in Portugal and in allowing Portuguese students and recent graduates to gain experience abroad. Thanks to the geographical proximity, close economic relations and very deep ties at all levels between our countries, as well as innovative and dynamic societies in both Portugal and the U.S., I am very confident this program will also be a success.

PAPS: In your opinion, what will be the main outcome of this Memorandum?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: The main outcome will arguably be bringing our two societies even closer. Portugal and the U.S. are already very close partners. The U.S. is our biggest trade partner outside the European Union. Portugal has several agreements with some of the main U.S. universities. We have in the U.S. the biggest Portuguese Diaspora, amounting to around 1.5 million people. Nowadays, we witness in the U.S. a renewed and increased curiosity about our country. I am proud to have witnessed how an increasing number of Americans have discovered or rediscovered Portugal. In 2017, seven hundred thousand Americans visited Portugal; in 2018, that number increased by 20%, which means that soon one million Americans will visit Portugal every year. Portuguese and American airlines have been expanding their routes. Between 2014 and 2018, the issuance of residence visas to Portugal, for U.S. students, researchers, workers and retirees increased threefold.

PAPS: Do you foresee other similar initiatives to bridge Portugal and the U.S. in the future?
Ambassador Fezas Vital: Absolutely. The relations between our two countries are excellent nowadays and that’s very much thanks to the dynamism of the civil societies of both countries. As I said, we are close geographically, but we are also complimentary countries. We can greatly mutually benefit from deepening our relations and fostering people to contacts is a crucial part of today’s diplomacy.
To bring Portugal even closer to the U.S. and to underline the diversity and dynamism of our present relationship, we organized last year a “Month of Portugal in the United States”, under the mottos “Portugal, 900 years young” and “Portugal and the US, neighbors across the ocean”.
We will keep working on this kind of goals. This year I plan to bring Portugal closer to areas of the U.S. outside DC, New York or San Francisco. We will keep using public diplomacy as a major tool of our work in the U.S. and we will support the development of civil society exchanges at all levels. One of our goals will be, for instance, to attract greater numbers of undergraduate and graduate students to Portugal, based on the excellence of our higher education and of our quality of life.

PAPS: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to PAPS. We really appreciate your active participation in our network. Could you please leave us with your final reflection on the Memorandum of Understanding?

Ambassador Fezas Vital: This Memorandum will be a very important instrument for both countries as we are, as I like to call it, “neighbors across the ocean”. Neighbors that keep discovering each other. I see this MoU as an opportunity for young Portuguese people to gain experience abroad in some of the most innovative companies of the most innovative country in the world and eventually bring those skills back to Portugal. At the same time, the MoU will allow young Americans to know our country even better and to understand that, besides the rich History of a country that is almost  900 years old, the oldest European nation within the same borders and a pioneer of globalization, Portugal is also a cosmopolitan, multicultural, modern, vibrant and creative society, one of the most exciting innovation eco-systems in the world, a country whose Universities are now ranked among the very best in the entire world.

For further information about the MoU or how to apply, questions should be addressed to Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Text by Inês Godet