In comments to Lusa, Alexandra Silva of the Portuguese Platform for Women's Rights (PpDM) explained that the Euroace Viogen project is expected to be concluded by December, but that its work may continue beyond that.

"We are predicting that it will be extended at least for three more months, in 2020, not as a project but possibly as public policies," said Silva, stressing that there is interest on the part of both countries for the initiative to continue.

The purpose of Euroace Viogen is to improve actions to aid and protect women victims of violence through cooperation between Portugal and Spain, focussing on the latter’s region of Extremadura and in Portugal’s Alentejo and Centro regions.

The budget of about €98,000 is part-financed (75%) by the European Union’s INTERREG V-A Spain-Portugal cooperation programme for 2014 to 2020 and 25% by the PpDM itself. The project began in July 2017.

According to Silva, it has not been easy to undertake the activities proposed, since although this is a political priority in Spain, a series of elections there have complicated matters: this year alone there have been legislative, European, regional and municipal elections. The result has had "some impact on the project’s return," she said.

Nevertheless, two of the three planned cross-border actions to train professionals who provide support to the victims of violence have taken place – one in December 2017 in Mérida, Spain and the other in May 2018 in Évora, Portugal.

According to Silva, so far awareness-raising campaigns and other actions have been undertaken in 40 schools in Portugal, and a questionnaire has been drawn up for young people in secondary education.

Euroace Viogen is implemented in Extremadura by that region’s Instituto de la Mujer (IMEX) and has formal partnerships with the education and employment offices there, as well as PpDM, which is coordinating the project.

On 4 July all these entities met in Lisbon with Portugal’s secretary of state for citizenship and equality, Rosa Monteiro, to discuss the project’s future. According to Silva, they left the meeting with an interest in creating a specific project to establish an effective cross-border network to work on combatting violence and supporting victims, and this possibility is now being studied