On Tuesday 16 May, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chad’s former foreign affairs minister and newly elected head of the African Union Commission, argued strongly before the European Parliament in Strasbourg for an enhanced EU-Africa partnership that is based on mutual respect, that fosters economic development and that guarantees a better future for the youth and people of Africa and Europe.
“Africa has an ambitious 50-year agenda for an integrated Africa that is prosperous and peaceful, that the Africa-Europe strategy partly covers. Agenda 2063 maps out the way to the future and provides the basis for our partnerships”, he said, speaking to MEPs on behalf of the African Union (AU) – as he had to the Foreign Affairs Council the previous day, ahead of the next EU-Africa summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at the end of November 2017 (see EUROPE 11789).
“The resolution of many conflicts (in the Horn of Africa, the Lake Chad basin and Central Africa), peace and security to silence arms by 2020, the fight against jihadism and radicality – these are the focus of our commitments. We very much appreciate the EU’s multi-form support, especially through the Facility for peace”, Faki Mahamat stated.
In his view, peace and security, the fight against climate change, droughts and famines, the fight against human rights violations, the development of trade and the private sector are priority challenges, to be addressed jointly with European partners.
“At a time when new powers are emerging, looking for their place in the globalised world”, the EU and Africa should ensure their strategic partnership bears fruit in order to meet common challenges together through “sustainable solutions in joint action”, Faki Mahamat stated. He also said that the next EU-Africa summit, a long way on from the first one in Cairo in 2000, “will be a new stage in our move towards a bright future for our peoples”.
Building bridges not walls. Aware that “immigration is a double challenge, to those who throw themselves onto the path of shipwreck, and to those who are overwhelmed” by the flows of migrants, Faki Mahamat said it was extremely important “to develop Africa and reinvent a better future for our young people”, who count for over 60% of the African population, and to build on the intellectual and financial resources of the diaspora.
A champion “of dialogue, of the solidarity of civilisations, cultures and religions”, Faki Mahamat called “not for walls to be built to create protection from other people, but for social action with these other people”.
Speaking about the burden of environmental degradation and climate change on the continent, Faki Mahamat noted that Africa is “the least polluting continent that is suffering the most from climate change but that only receives the smallest share” of the funding for addressing this global upheaval. This, in his opinion, is one of the fields that the EU-Africa partnership “will have to comprehend better and prioritise better”.
Faki Mahamat was, however, pleased that the German presidency of the G20 supports a Marshall Plan for Africa.
His speech was applauded by MEPs. Africa is “a priority for the EU”, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani stated. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)