A delegation of members of the European and Pan-African Parliaments met on Friday in Lisbon, ahead of the EU-Africa summit. A joint declaration by both Parliaments was adopted calling for them to have a stronger role in the new Joint EU-Africa strategy. EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering and Pan-African Parliament (PAP) President Gertrude Mongella will both address the EU-Africa Summit.
The joint declaration calls for greater focus on the eradication of poverty and development, particularly through investing in people’s health and education.
The statement criticizes that there is little role for the parliaments foreseen in the strategy – EP and PAP ask for full involvement into the process. They believe that:
- real progress can only be achieved having at its heart the people for whom this progress is meant.
- parliaments are the democratically elected representatives of the people.
- they reflect various opinions of society and are places where different views can be reconciled, compromise found.
Parliaments also must have stronger role in budgetary matters to ensure “that executives carry out the agreed policies in an effective, democratic and fiscally responsible manner”. Financial aid too often runs directly form executive to executive bypassing parliamentary monitoring.
According to an article in Allafrica.com, Maria Martens MEP and rapporteur on Africa, underlined at the meeting the importance of the parliamentary dimension of the EU-Africa Strategy in order to make it a genuine people-centred partnership. The Joint Statement stresses that the EP, the Pan African Parliament (PAP) and African national parliaments must be closely involved in the monitoring of the implementation of the strategy and the accompanying Action Plan. “The current Action Plan is still too vague, and we are waiting for more concrete proposals from the EU and AU Commissions.”
Read more on the EP website.
Read declaration – html
