Europafrica bulletin

Issue 16                                 29 April 2008

 
 

The Africa-EU Joint Strategy was approved at the Lisbon Summit in December 2007 after a year of negotiations and a public consultation. The key challenge will now be the implementation of the Strategy.

 
 

As previously announced, the europafrica website will also move a step further- from the consultation to the implementation phase of the Strategy, in particular by providing regular information and analysis on the various dimensions of the Action Plan and contributing to facilitate the dialogue on how to operationalise the commitments contained in the joint Strategy.

 
 

While we are still in the process of transforming the website, we would like you to be informed about the current issues on EU-Africa Relations. Thus, the europafrica bulletin will be sent out once a month to keep you on track.

 
 

This is the sixteenth issue of the Europafrica bulletin (click here for the previous issues), which will give you an up-date on the public consultation for a joint EU-Africa Strategy. The bulletin is issued 1-2 times per month.

 
 

News

 
 

7th Meeting of the AU-EU Task Force in Addis

The headquarters of the African Union hosted on 17 and 18 April 2008, the seventh meeting of the Task Force of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the European Union (EU) which was attended by a hundred officials of both organizations.

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Lesotho Hosts Second Consultative Meeting on the Implementation of the First Action Plan of the Africa-EU Joint Strategy

The African Union Commission, through the Department of Economic Affairs, has organized a Consultative Meeting on the Implementation of the First Action Plan of the Joint Strategy, scheduled to take place from 14-15 April 2008, in Maseru, Kingdom of Lesotho. The Consultative meeting would cover the Eastern and the Southern Regions of the Continent and discuss the implementation and monitoring of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy and the Action Plan.

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First AU Regional consultative meeting on the Implementation of the First Action Plan of the Africa/EU Strategy

 
 

The African Union has organised its 1st Regional Consultation on the Implementation of the Plan of Action of the Africa-EU Joint Strategy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from the 19th until the 20th of March

and thus gathered actors from the West, North and Central Africa, as well as the EU, to discuss the monitoring and implementation of the Joint Strategy and come up with solid and good suggestions.

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The consequences of EPAs on the future of the ACP Group

 
 

On the 14th of March 2008 the Secretary General of the ACP Group has given a speech at the 12th Session of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly in Ljubljana, Slovenia. There, he underlined again the current discussion around the implementation of the EPAs between the ACP countries and EU. According to him, the EPAs, if not properly implemented, will have long term negative effects on the economic, social, and political realms of the ACP States and Regions.

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Meeting on Europe-Africa Research Network (EARN) on the 2nd of April in Brussels

On the initiative of the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) and the Lisbon-based Instituto de Estudos Estrategicos Internacionais (IEEI) a meeting has been organised on the 2nd of April in Brussels to discuss the future work and internal organisation of the Europe-Africa Research Network EARN. The meeting was attended by over 20 policy research institutes and networks from Africa and Europe.

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Jean Ping and Louis Michel met in Brussels (8.04.08)

The President the African Union Commission, Jean Ping and the European Commissioner for Development and for Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, met this morning on the 8th of April to discuss topics of common interest between Africa and Europe

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OECD Aid figures show ODA drop and EU Plans from the 9 April 2008

According to the OECD figures, Development aid from the European Union’s 27 countries fell last year urging governments to live up to their commitments to give more to poor nations.

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Integration of NEPAD into the AU shall happen within 12 month

During ‘the mini-summit meeting’ of the Ad Hoc Committee of the African Union (AU) in Dakar, consisting of heads of state initiators of NEPAD, it is intended to deepen the reflection on the integration of the NEPAD secretariat in the commission of the AU within 12 month said Monday in Dakar, the Minister Delegate in charge of Maghreb and African Affairs of Algeria, Abdelkader Messahel.

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EC Communication on the Follow-up of the Joint Strategy and Action Plan

The Communication “Follow-up to the Africa-EU-Lisbon Summit: engaging the Commission in a partnership of results” tries to inform about the measures that need to be in place for the implementation of the commitments of the Lisbon Summit. It focuses on the political and institutional arrangements both at Commission, EU and African levels, required to ensure the implementation of the Joint Africa-EU- Strategy and its Action Plan.

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Public Consultation on EU-China-Africa launched by the European Commission

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the following subject: “The EU, Africa and China: Towards trilateral dialogue and cooperation on Africa’s peace, stability and sustainable development” with a consultation period starting on the 16/04/2008 until the 13/06/2008. The purpose of this consultation is to gather information and opinion from all African, Chinese and European stakeholders and
i) on the EU proposal to set up a trilateral (Africa-China-EU) dialogue and cooperation notably in the areas of peace and security, infrastructure and sustainable management of natural resources;
ii) and eventually  on possible joint actions to be taken by the EU, its Member States, China and Africa to support it

Read more about the consultation - html

Consultation document - doc

Other consultations: Public consultation “‘Towards an EU approach to local democratic governance, decentralisation and territorial development”. In order to stimulate the debate and receive external contributions to enrich the policy making process, the Commission  launches this public  consultation supported by an “issues paper” and a “background document” (see attached documents). The issues paper aims at identifying the main questions to be addressed in this preparatory process. The public consultation is expected to provide inputs for a Commission’s Communication, which should be finalised in July 2008.

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Current Readings on Africa

China still a small player in Africa

Firoze Manji argues that in comparison to Europe and the US, China in Africa is still a small player. While keeping an eye out on China, Africans should not be distracted from paying attention to the West’s continued exploitation of the continent including the use of military might to protect its economic interests.

India takes on China in Africa, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

In this essay, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta adds yet another layer by looking at India’s growing role in Africa

More on the India-Africa-Summit

Review of the Summit

 
 

Meetings/ Upcoming Events

28.04 Europe Africa Business Summit. The state and the future of Europe-Africa Economic Relations (Hamburg, Germany)
28.-30.04 First Regional meeting of the JPA ACP-EU (Windhoek, Namibia)
06.05 ACP Meeting (Council, Brussels)
08.05 DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION (Council, Brussels)
26.05 GENERAL AFFAIRS AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS COUNCIL (Council, Brussels)
27.05 GENERAL AFF. AND EXT. RELATIONS COUNCIL/DEVELOP.MIN. (Council, Brussels)
25.-6-26.06 Meeting of the ACP-EU Follow-up Committee (EESC, Brussels)
June : Africa-EU Ministerial Troika (tbc)
Beginning of July : African Union Summit