This conference was organised by the European Socialist Party on 19 September with, among other participants, Dr. Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan-African Parliament, João Cravinho, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal and Martin Schulz, Socialist Group President at the European Parliament.
This is an ECDPM report of the event.
Among other issues Mrs. Mongella mentioned her concerns on the brain drain in Africa and the factor that many skilled African workers were going to Europe and stressed her concerns on the human rights and conflict situation in Africa for which both Europe and Africa were to be held accountable.
Finally, Mrs Mongella raised the need for strong political will for the foreseen Summit to be a turning point in EU-Africa relations and stressed the need for a strong involvement of Parliaments. Joao Cravinho answered to those concerns by saying that there was a strong will for change on the European side and the future joint EU-Africa Strategy would be informed by the changes that took place in international affairs with the rise of issues such as climate change, migration, security, …The EU has regular Summits with various regions and continents and Africa should be part of this political dialogue at a high level. Africa has greatly evolved in these last years, with, among others, the birth of the African Union, and Europe should accompany this evolution.
After having presented the different objectives and themes covered by the Strategy, Joao Cravinho insisted on the importance of the people to people partnership promoted that the joint Strategy seeks to promote, and the key role of Parliaments in that respect.
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