CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – The European Union has provided more than Euro 23 million (One Euro =US$1.29 cents) in funding projects in the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) since March last year. Newly appointed European Union (EU) ambassador to the OECS, Mikael Barfod, says he hopes to “maintain and strengthen” those project as he presented his credentials to OECS Director General, Dr Len Ishmael. Barfod, who becomes the first EU ambassador to the nine-member grouping, spoke of the “tremendous achievements” of the sub-region in the integration process, congratulating it also on the efforts to efficiently insert the region in the global economy.