EU-Africa Summit
9 December 2007
Lisbon-South African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday, 9 December concluded
his official visit to Portugal where he led a South African government
delegation to the European Union (EU)-Africa Summit held in Lisbon from
Saturday, 8 to Sunday, 9 December.
President Mbeki was accompanied to the summit by Zanele Mbeki and supported
by Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad, Foreign Affairs Director-General Ayanda
Ntsaluba, Deputy Director-General Jessie Duarte and South Africa's Ambassadors
to Portugal, EU and the African Union (AU).
South Africa participated in the summit within the framework of
strengthening relations with EU countries with a view to advancing the
Consolidation of the African Agenda. "What we (Africa) want from Europe is not
a relationship based on donor-recipient conditions but a partnership. We
(Africa) are not coming to them (EU) as a beggar," said President Mbeki.
During the summit, President Mbeki led discussions of the EU-Africa Heads of
State and Government on the issue of good governance and human rights. Other
topics discussed included peace and security, energy and climate change,
migration, and infrastructure and development.
The EU-Africa Summit endorsed the Africa-EU Strategy developed at
Ministerial level focusing on peace and security, good governance and human
rights, trade and regional integration including developmental issues.
One of the critical issues discussed by the summit was the proposed Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA). In this regard, President Mbeki noted that "these
EPAs will not contribute to the development of the African-Caribbean-Pacific
countries as they do not assist in fighting poverty."
"They also include certain issues that are on the agenda of World Trade
Organisation (WTO). They are not constructed on the same basis as other
agreements in the Doha Development Round. They (EU) offered us to sign the
interim agreement and negotiate the conditions at a later stage. In this
regard, President Mbeki indicated that "the Chairperson of the AU Commission
will consider it as a proposal and respond later."
With regard to Zimbabwe, President Mbeki indicated that Zimbabwe was not a
major focus of the summit but had received attention of a few countries. In
this regard, prompted by the lack of information on the facilitation process,
President Mbeki explained to the summit "decisions taken by Southern African
Development Community (SADC) with regard to Zanu-PF and MDC meeting and that
they were making a lot of progress."
During his visit to Portugal, President Mbeki held bilateral discussions
with a number of African and European leaders. President Mbeki returns to South
Africa on Monday, 10 December ahead of the scheduled ANC National Executive
Committee (NEC) meeting.
Contact:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell 082 990 4853
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
9 December 2007
