ECDPM aims to share information on the EU-Africa Strategy negotiations, on related events and positions of civil society representatives as well as provide some analysis on the progress of the negotiations. Click here for a brief introduction of the process. Apart from this bulletin, see also: www.europafrica.org
This is the eleventh 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. Subscribe by sending an e-mail to: europafrica@ecdpm.org
Editorial:
Lisbon Summit: the day after… Are Africa and the EU ready for a real change in their relationship?
Will the Lisbon Summit and the new Africa-EU joint Strategy bring substantial change in the way both partners handle their relationship? As a facilitator of the public consultation on the Strategy, ECDPM believes it is useful at this stage to start looking beyond the Summit and, without seeking to be comprehensive, this editorial raises a small selection of issues that amongst others will deserve attention in 2008.
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News:
Preparations of the Lisbon Summit
A section on the europafrica website provides links to recent news and views on the upcoming EU-Africa Summit. The Portuguese Presidency
of the EU and the European Commission have also set up webpages providing information.
According to the website of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU the participants of the Lisbon Summit will include:
- 52 Member-States of the African Union;
- Kingdom of Morocco;
- African Commission;
- 27 Member States of the European Union;
- European Commission;
- General-Secretariat of the Council of the EU
Civil society side events
Several events are planned in Lisbon before and during the summit, including a youth summit, an alternative summit by NGOs, a business forum and an EP-PAP meeting. Most of the events intend to submit declarations to the EU-Africa Summit. A new section on the europafrica website provides a list of events and links to more information where available. See also the related events section at the end of the bulletin.
The official negotiations
The Strategy and Action Plan
Please note the documents published in the last bulletin were not final. The difference is that of the frequency of the summits, which is set to every three years. The validity of the Action Plan is thus also of three years.
The Joint Strategy and Action Plan were approved by the Joint Ministerial Troika Meeting on 31 October and should be discussed by the Africa-EU Ministerial meeting in Sharm El Sheikh on 4-5 December and be endorsed by the EU-Africa Summit of Heads of States and Governments in Lisbon on 8-9 December.
Joint Strategy – 31 October 2007 – doc
Action Plan – 31 October 2007 – doc
EU General Affairs and External Relations Council
The GAERC of 19-20 November examined the joint EU-Africa Strategy and Action Plan as approved by the EU-Africa Ministerial Troika on 31 October. The Council also held an exchange of views on the basis of a paper prepared by the Presidency that highlights the following issues: consequences of the new joint strategy and action plan form the perspective of development ministers, the synergies to be established regarding the institutional framework and financial instruments for development cooperation policy, the promotion of policy coherence to ensure an integrated and global vision of the EU-Africa dialogue.
Press release – GAERC conclusions – doc
The public consultation
Europe-Africa civil society forum
The Portuguese NGDO platform organised a civil society forum on 15-17 November in Lisbon. This event brought together civil society representatives from Europe and Africa, and aimed at opening and broadening the dialogue between the continents. The forum produced a declaration to be presented at the Lisbon Summit.
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Voices from the Euro-Africa Civil Society Forum
In their project ‘African Voices’ BOND
(British Overseas NGOs for Development) aims at making civil society voices heard ahead of the December EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon. At the Euro-Africa Civil Society Forum that took place in Lisbon on 15-17 November they documented opinions from several representatives from African civil society.
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Declaration of African Churches on the EU-Africa Strategy
Church leaders from African countries met in Accra, Ghana on 12-13 November 2007 to discuss their vision about EU-Africa relations. The event was organised jointly by the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM, the continental Roman Catholic body of bishop’s conferences), and was the first time ever that the two bodies came together to discuss such an issue.
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CONCORD paper on challenges of the EU-Africa partnership
CONCORD (the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development) has published a paper on ‘The challenges of the renewed EU-Africa Partnership’. The paper states that building the trust necessary for an effective partnership requires time and effort and that the Lisbon Summit should “be seen as a milestone in a longer term process”. The paper discusses what is needed to build a renewed partnership as well as how it can be truly people centred. It further lists pre-conditions that are necessary for meaningful civil society engagement in the monitoring and implementation of the strategy, including to build on systems that are already in place and work and that effective civil society engagement requires sufficient resources.
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Related events
29/11: International Conference: ‘On the eve of the EU-Africa-Summit – Creating a true and equal partnership?’ (WEED and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Berlin)
30/11: Ad hoc working group at the EU Council
30/11: Debate at the European Policy Centre with Louis Michel, EC Commissioner for Development “Continental shift? The EU-Africa Summit: opportunities and challenges”
3/12: Debate on the EU-Africa Relations (LUX / Global Debat, Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
4-5/12: Joint EU-Africa Council of Ministers (Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt), to prepare for the EU-Africa Summit.
8-9/12: EU-Africa Summit of Heads of States and Governments (Lisbon)
Civil society side events to the Summit
4-7/12: EU-Africa Youth Summit (Lisbon). Will adopt a declaration to present to the Lisbon summit.
6-7/12: 9th EU NGO Forum on Human Rights (Lisbon)
6-7/12: ‘Space for Development: the case of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and Africa’ (Organised under the auspices of the Portuguese presidency; Lisbon).
7/12: EP/PAP interparliamentary meeting (Lisbon) – will present joint declaration on the strategy at the summit.
7/12: Delegation of European and African Mayors meeting with EC president Barrosso. (Council of European Municipalities and Regions;
Lisbon)
7/12: EU-Africa Business Summit (Lisbon)
7-9/12: Alternative Summit: ‘Alternatives for Africa-Europe‘ (organised by Portuguese CSOs; Lisbon, Portugal)
Please let us know of any events that you are planning, so we can put them in the calendar.
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