Foreign Affairs on European Union (EU) – Africa Summit

5 December 2007

European Union (EU) – Africa Summit

The EU – Africa Summit will be preceded by a preparatory Foreign Ministers
meeting that will take place in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt 5 to 6 December 2007 and
most of our delegation have already arrived in Sharm El-Sheik – the Minister
assisted by Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad, the Director-General Dr Ayanda
Ntsaluba, Ambassador Duarte, Ambassador Sooklal, Ambassador Pepane and other
senior officials.

The delegation to the Summit on 8 to 9 December 2007 will be led by
President Thabo Mbeki, assisted by Minister Dlamini Zuma, Minister Mpahlwa,
Deputy Minister Pahad, Director-General Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba and other
officials.

The Preparatory meeting takes place on Thursday, 6 December 2007 and will be
preceded by a working dinner tonight Wednesday, 5 December 2007. There will be
a number of sessions tomorrow Thursday, 6 December 2007. A plenary session will
be held in the morning during which contributions will be made by the Foreign
Minister of Egypt as the host country, the current chair of the African Union
(Ghana) the current EU chair (Portugal) and the various heads of the African
and European Commissions and various other countries.

This plenary session will be followed by a general debate during which the
five African Foreign Ministers representing the five geographical regions of
the continent and similarly, five representatives from the EU side will address
the delegates.

The last session will be devoted to the consideration and the adoption by
the Ministers of the draft documents prepared for the Africa Union – EU Troika
and that will be followed by a joint press conference which will be chaired by
the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Ghana, and Portugal.

This is as far as the logistics for Sharm El-Sheik are concerned.

Perhaps I could say something about the logistics for the Summit: Heads of
State and Government will arrive in Lisbon during Friday, 7 December 2007. A
cocktail reception and musical presentation will be hosted by Portugal that
evening.

The opening session will begin on Saturday, 8 December 2007. This will
include speeches by the EU and the African Union (AU) Presidencies and
Commissions, the European and Pan-African Parliaments, and the UN
Secretary-General who will also attend the Summit.

That opening session will be followed by the first session where there will
be contributions on the main themes of the Summit which was agreed to between
the African and European sides.

There are five main themes:

* Good governance and human rights
* Peace and security
* Migration
* Energy and climate change and
* Trade, infrastructure and development.

There will be contributions by various heads of government and state on
these various themes.

This will be followed by a lunch and the second plenary session where the
interventions from both sides on these five themes will continue. There will be
banquet hosted by Portugal that evening.

The third plenary session will be held on Sunday, 9 December 2007 where
apart from further contributions on these five themes, Heads of State and
Government will also receive reports from events being hosted on the fringes of
the Summit: EU-Africa business relations, EU-Africa Trade Unions meeting,
EU-Africa Youth Meeting and an EU-Africa Civil Society meeting.

Heads of State and Government will then adopt the documents – the main one
being the EU-Africa Strategy. This will be followed by a closing session during
which addresses will be made by Portugal, the AU, and so on. A joint press
conference will conclude the proceedings.

Those are the logistics.

Perhaps I can on the issue of attendance say: a confirmed delegation list is
still not available. We can however safely assume that all the EU and AU member
states will be represented although not all delegations will be led by Heads of
State or Government. Many delegations will be led by Foreign Ministers but this
is not unusual. It is quite rare that all delegations at any AU or EU Summit
will be led by Heads of State or Government.

I do not have to tell you that Africa and Europe are bound together by
history, culture, geography, a common future and the community of values –
issues like human rights, equality, solidarity, justice, rule of law – there is
a common cause between Africa and Europe on these issues.

This Summit, the first one since the inaugural Africa – EU Summit in Cairo
in 2000, comes in the wake of considerable change on both continents –
democratisation and reform processes have been launched and are being deepened
in Africa and Europe. At the same time, integration processes are important –
both continents have accelerated these processes since 2000. On one hand the
OAU has been transformed into the AU with its socio-economic programme the New
Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and other mechanisms created. The
EU has nearly doubled in size and is also in the process of deepening its
Union.

Furthermore, the world has changed during this period. New international
global challenges have emerged – it is interesting, if you look at the
substance of the Cairo Summit, the issue of climate change and global warming
did not even feature on the agenda. Globalisation has accelerated and the world
has become an increasingly inter-dependent place. It was therefore felt that
the time has come again for Europe and Africa to talk.

The European Union has expressed its willingness to work towards a
successful Summit in Lisbon that clearly reflects the ambition and the maturity
of the relationship between the two continents.

We are committed from the African side to ensure this Summit succeeds. It is
time for the two continents to forge a new and stronger partnership that builds
on the new identities and institutions and that capitalise on the lessons of
the past, provides a solid framework for a long term and systematic integration
co-operation and partnership.

I think both sides feel that there is a need for a new phase in the Africa –
EU relationship – a new strategic partnership, a more meaningful one and off
course, the joint EU-Africa Summit that will be adopted in Lisbon will serve as
political vision and a roadmap for the future co-operation between the two
continents and the challenging world in which we now live.

Let me say something about the EU–Africa Joint Strategy: this is a very
important document, a very important process and we trust that this document
that will be adopted will take the Africa – EU relationship to a new strategic
level with strengthened political partnership and enhanced co-operation at all
levels. This Joint Strategy will provide an over-arching, long term framework
for Africa – EU relations and this will be implemented through a number of
successive short-term action plans and enhanced political dialogue at all
levels resulting in concrete and measurable outcomes in all areas of the
partnership.

Basically there are four main objectives to this partnership:

* Reinforce and elevate the Africa – EU political partnership to
increasingly address issues of common concern, strengthening of institutional
ties and addressing common challenges including peace and security, migration,
development and climate change

* To strengthen and promote peace and security, democratic governance, human
rights, fundamental freedoms including industrialisation and regional and
continental integration in Africa – that is a very important area – the
promotion of the millennium development goals (MDGs) fall within this
context

* To jointly promote and sustain a system of effective multilateralism with
strong, representative and legitimate institutions – reform of the UN system,
international financial architecture and to jointly address global challenges
and common concerns including human rights, gender equality, fair trade, HIV
and AIDS, arms trafficking, knowledge based society and a host of other
issues

* To facilitate and promote a broad based and wide ranging people centred
partnership. Africa and the EU will try and empower non-state actors to enable
them to play an active role in development and democracy building, conflict
prevention, etc.

These are the four broad and over-arching objectives of this Summit and it
is necessary because the scope of Africa’s relations with the EU has deepened
significantly both in terms of political consultations, economic ties,
development co-operation and therefore, as I said, it is time for Africa and
Europe to talk in a meaningful and constructive manner.

The key objective for Africa is that this new partnership between Africa and
Europe should make a tangible impact towards the reduction and the eventual
eradication of poverty in Africa. This objective entails support for
sustainable economic, social and environmental development, promotion of the
gradual integration of the developing countries into the world economy and
sharing its own (and Europe has a lot of experience) experience in terms of
economic development and regional integration.

So the key focus must be on creating the necessary economic environment for
development on the Continent. It is very important that, in order for this
partnership to grow, the four key pillars of this strategy must be accompanied
by concrete and tangible action to be agreed upon at the Summit. In the context
of this Strategy, concrete progress must be made under these four pillars.

The four pillars of this strategy which more or less corresponds with the
agenda of the Summit:

* peace and security;
* good governance and human rights;
* trade and regional integration; and
* development issues with includes issues pertaining, amongst others, to the
MDGs, gender equality, human and social development.

In the preparation for this Summit and the discussions on the joint
EU-Africa Strategy South Africa played an important role in this process – not
just as the Chef de File or Co-ordinator for the Trade and Regional Integration
Sector but we were also a member of the AU–EU Experts Working Group on the
Joint Strategy so we were directly involved in this process, in preparing and
discussing the content of the EU-Africa Strategy and finalising it in the
run-up to the Summit.

We were also part of the preparing the first Joint Action Plan which will be
adopted at the Summit in Lisbon. It is a joint action plan that has to
implement the first phase of the joint EU-Africa Strategy. What is important
and I think South Africa’s position in this regard has been, that in order to
effectively implement this Africa – EU partnership the issue of financing of
this strategy/action plan is very important and these issues will be further
discussed in Lisbon.

There must be an effective implementation of this and mechanisms to
encourage this and the importance of follow up actions to ensure that this is
not just a talk shop. This document must be effectively implemented, monitored
and measured.

In that regard, the EU and Africa has agreed that it will implement this
Strategy and the broader Strategic Partnership that is evolving between Africa
and Europe through an enhanced institutional architecture which allows and
promotes intensive exchanges and dialogue on all issues of common concern.

It will also be decided in Lisbon that in order to ensure the
implementation, effective and smooth running of the Africa Strategy and this
broader partnership that meetings of Heads of State and Government will be
organised every 2-3 years. This will be built into the outcome of this Summit
alternating between Africa and the EU. These Summits will always be prepared by
Ministerial level interactions.

The political momentum and visibility of this new partnership will also
require political engagement of the leaders of Africa and the EU between
Summits and to this end the Presidents of the EU Council and the AU, the
European Parliament, the Pan African Parliament and the European and AU
Commissions will regularly meet in the interim periods.

What comes out of this is that there is an enhanced political dialogue, a
stepped up political dialogue and there is a strong commitment on both sides to
give effect to this. In the period between the Summits, it has been agreed that
the dialogue between Africa and the EU should be maintained through regular
meetings and I mentioned on ministerial level. These meetings will be held on a
Troika format whereby each side is represented by a smaller number of delegates
who are mandated to speak about Africa and the EU respectively. On the EU side
the Troika consists of the current and incoming Presidency, the European
Commission, the EU Council Secretariat. On the African side, the Troika
consists of the current and outgoing Presidencies of the AU and the AU
Commission. These annual Africa – EU Ministerial Troika meetings will occupy a
central role in implementing whatever comes out of the Lisbon Summit.

It was also agreed that there would be ongoing contact between the European
and African Parliaments and also between the EU economic and social committee,
ECOSOC on the AU side. They will encourage civil society to interact – these
are all features of an increased political dialogue between the two
continents.

What I am saying is that the adoption of this Africa – EU Strategy is the
key of this Summit and will give practical content to this relationship between
the EU and Africa.

To summarise: seven years have passed since the first Summit and many
important changes have taken place and both the EU and African Union on the two
continents continue to play a more important political and economic roles and
have greater political and economic responsibilities on a world stage. I think
there is no doubt that there is an increased strategic importance of Africa
unfolding. Africa has assumed a new strategic importance in the eyes of the
West and in terms of the EU, I think it is important that we have this meeting
and it has become urgent that we talk, as the two continents. We trust that as
Africa, we will come away from the Summit with, not only a common vision, but
also a practical plan of action for co-operation between Africa and Europe.

Deputy President to lead delegation to inauguration of Argentinian
President

As you are aware, Argentina recently held Presidential elections and
Cristina Kirchner ran for office and was elected with a comfortable majority
and the inauguration of Cristina Kirchner as the first elected female President
of Argentina will be held on Monday, 10 December 2007 in Buenos Aires.

The South African delegation to the inauguration will be led by Deputy
President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. , It will be a very quick visit.
,
It will be a ceremonial event attended by Heads of State and Government from
all over the world and particularly from South America.

Questions and answers

Question: Ambassador, the issue of Zimbabwe is still floating around. There
have been some statements by the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
and other African countries that they do not want this on the agenda. Is there
an agreement on the African side that this is so?

Answer: Well, as I tried to indicate, there were various meetings between
the two sides in the run up to the preparatory meeting of tomorrow and the
Summit itself. An agenda has been agreed to. I have mentioned the agenda points
and the main themes in the agenda and as far as Africa is concerned, that is
the agenda that has been agreed upon and this will serve as the agenda for the
meeting.

South Africa and Africa would want this Summit to focus on the substance of
expanding the Strategic Partnership between Africa and Europe. That must be the
key focus. It is on this issue that we want positive and tangible outcomes and
as far as we are concerned, this is the main focus.

I mentioned that one of the themes would be governance and human rights and
I don’t think Africa can stop Europe if they choose to raise the issue of
Zimbabwe under this theme. We have no confirmation that this will be done
albeit there are many rumours. As far as we are concerned, Zimbabwe is not part
of the agenda. We have an agenda and we would like to stick to this agreed
agenda.

Question: Ambassador, the agreement between the ACP countries and the EU
will expire on 31 December 2007. Will South Africa review this agreement?

Answer: This is an issue that will obviously come up for discussion probably
within the context of the trade, development and infrastructure discussion.
That process in an ongoing one. You know that the EU has been negotiating with
a number of regional communities in Africa – Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), East, SADC – with a view to reaching the Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs). In the case of South Africa, our position is that we were
opposed to the inclusion of (and I’m over simplifying now) goods and services
in the EPAs as the EU wanted. South Africa objected to this because the impact
of making significant concessions by Africa on these issues would be
detrimental to Africa and certainly to SADC.

But this process is underway, what has happened very recently that there was
a decision taken because of the fact that the current dispensation in the
African, Caribbean and Pacific region (ACP) context will expire on 31 December
because the waiver that was granted by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will
expire – it was hoped that a new dispensation would have come into effect on 1
January 2008.

As I said, we ran into problems on the goods and services, on some of the
trade issues, and it was then agreed that an interim EPA would be signed and it
was signed about a week ago in the South. Only four countries in the South –
Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique signed. South Africa did not sign
this agreement. Namibia was still contemplating signing this.

This is an interim EPA that did not include trade and services – just trade
and goods.

This process is therefore ongoing and some solution will have to be found on
how to move forward. This is a very complex issue.

Question: Ambassador is President Mbeki speaking at the Summit?

Answer: The President will make an intervention – I am not entirely sure
when but I am sure he will make an intervention.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
5 December 2007