ECDPM report of the event
An Open Forum was organised by the European Parliament (EP) and the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) on 8 November in Lisbon, in parallel with the European Development Days. The meeting was Co-chaired by the President of the EP, Josep Borrell, and Hon Marwick T Khumalo, Chair of the PAP delegation for the relations with the EP. The discussion mainly concentrated on the process of the Strategy rather than on the content.
Presentations were made by MEP Maria Martens, rapporteur for the EP report on the State of play of EU-Africa relations and by John Dramani Mahama, PAP MP, from Ghana on the joint PAP-EP Statement on the Joint Strategy. Additional interventions were made by Roland Zinzius, Head of Sector Pan-African issues of the European Commission (EC), Geert Laporte (ECDPM) and Joao Gomes Cravinho, Portuguese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. The audience was composed of representatives from EC, EU member states, EP (some 10 members of the EP Development Committee) and a variety of civil society organisations.
ECDPM raised some key concerns of civil society as well as the African concerns relating to both process and content of the Joint Strategy (such as reciprocity in the partnership, lack of awareness and participation in spite of some laudable efforts made, real monitoring and implementation work starting as of 10 December after Summit, etc). Some promising steps to make the strategy work in practice were also mentioned (eg intention to upgrade dialogue mechanisms between various categories of EU and African actors at all levels, EU-EEAS in Addis, mapping of civil society, joint networks of think tanks, etc.)
Both PAP and EP were quite satisfied with the ‘inclusive’ approach in the preparation of the Joint Strategy. However, they stressed the importance of also being associated in the monitoring and implementation phases. It is therefore important to strengthen formal structures of dialogue with governments and both Commissions. The PAP-EP Parliamentary Pre-Summit on 7 December in Lisbon could provide an opportunity to strengthen this dialogue and to raise the standards of Parliamentarians in the Joint Strategy process.
Participants to the debate made several suggestions, including:
- Need for Permanent Delegation PAP-EP
- Invite observers from other regions (India, China) to Pre-Summit EP-PAP
- Invest more in CSO participation and practical ways to reach out to these actors
- Strengthen linkages between Parliaments and CSOs
- Support to African governance initiatives (APRM). Make peer reviews compulsory instead of voluntary
- Request to put more emphasis in strategy on gender dimension, weapons of mass destruction, repatriation of private bank accounts of corrupt leaders, African agriculture
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