African Union Commission (AUC) and European Commission (EC) lay the foundations of a strong cooperation in the field of energy

 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, September 8, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The African Union Commission (AUC) and the European Commission (EC) laid today the first stone of an ambitious bilateral energy cooperation with the signature of a Joint Statement on the Africa-EU Energy Partnership. The signature of the Joint Statement was the main outcome of a high-level meeting that took place at the headquarters of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the participation of Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Mr Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid and Mr Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Energy.

 

During this first high-level dialogue the two parties agreed on actions to be taken in the next two years in order to speed up the implementation of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership. In particular, through identifying:

• Priorities for a Road Map for the implementation of the Action Plan, adopted during the Africa-EU Lisbon Summit of December 2007
  
• Governance set-up for the implementation of the Partnership.
  

 

They also underlined the importance of reinforcing existing forms of energy cooperation, particularly in the current context of increasing global energy demand and high energy prices.

 

The AU and EU have defined a strategy that addresses key energy challenges and cover energy security, access to sustainable energy services as well as issues of climate change. The strategy also reinforces the political commitment to sustainable energy solutions and creates a strong framework for African-European dialogue.

 

The EU-Africa Joint Strategy and its First Action Plan (2008-2010), which was adopted on the occasion of the Lisbon Summit of 8-9 December 2007, included 8 strategic partnerships. The Energy Partnership is the first of these 8 partnerships that will count with a concrete set of measures to start its implementation.

 

The majority of African countries lack own fossil energy resources, and therefore spend a large share of their export revenues on energy imports. Increasing energy prices represent a heavy burden for their economic development, and even more so for poor households. In landlocked African countries energy shortages can be amplified by socio-economic and political crisis in neighbouring countries. This is why AU and the EU have identified access to modern energy services in Africa as equally important for economic development and reaching the Millennium Development Goals. (MDG).

 

 

SOURCE : African Union Commission (AUC)