After five years without meeting again, European leaders and their South African partners welcomed the success of the seventh EU/South Africa Summit (see EUROPE 12137) on Thursday 15 November in Brussels.
According to them, this has relaunched the strategic partnership between the EU and South Africa on political, economic, trade, investment and cooperation for the sustainable development of South Africa. Both sides also reaffirmed their strong commitment to multilateralism to address global challenges together, whether in the areas of rules-based trade, security, migration or climate change. These elements are set out in a joint statement.
"I hope that we will no longer wait five years for the next summit”, Mr Juncker said at the press conference at the end of the summit, expressing the hope that it will be possible to hold it "in two years at most, because we must strengthen our ties. South Africa is an important partner for the multilateral order and the fight against climate change. We need to invest more morally and politically”.
The same tone was heard from the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk: "from climate change to migration, from trade to security, we can further strengthen our partnership that could serve as an example to the rest of the world", he said.
Brexit. Mr Tusk said he had informed South Africa of the latest developments regarding Brexit and tried to reassure South Africa (see other news). "We understood that the negotiations were coming to an end and that the impact should not be negative. We want to continue our exchanges with Europe, even strengthen them. There should be no impact on our trade with the United Kingdom", added South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
It also considered that this summit had made it possible to renew links with the EU in order to lay the foundations for more effective relations. And to mention in particular: - accelerating investment through the EU's external investment plan, whose partners have committed themselves to exploring all opportunities, but also under the new 'Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs', which both sides welcomed; - combating climate change; - promoting human rights.
Mr Ramaphosa welcomed the fact that the ties between the EU and his country had been strengthened in terms of economic development. He recalled that the EU was his country's largest trading partner with trade whose value had quadrupled since 2000, with the creation of 500,000 jobs by more than 2,000 companies based in Europe.
Zimbabwe. South Africa has “called on the EU to lift any remaining sanctions against Zimbabwe”, because Zimbabwe is on the road to deep reforms, marking "a positive shift", the South African president said.
Multilateralism/WTO. Recalling their commitment to the multilateral trading system in the final declaration, the partners are ‘deeply concerned’ about the impact of protectionist measures on this system, at a time when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is experiencing its deepest crisis since its creation (see EUROPE 12126). The two entities thus undertake to carry out the reform of the Organisation, including the appellate body of the dispute settlement system, in order to make it more effective (see EUROPE 12098). However, the declaration does not mention that this reform also requires a modernisation of the WTO, with South Africa opposing negotiations on new subjects such as electronic commerce.
Fostering investment while addressing trade barriers: partners commit to "exploring all of the opportunities for investment", including to promote sustainable development. However, this investment must be accompanied by measures to ensure "an conducive business environment... within transparent and predictable policy and regulatory framework and with the aim to ensure accountability and competitive practices".
The EU complains about the existence of barriers to South African investment and public procurement. Where appropriate, an ad hoc multistakeholder dialogue can be established to "[deepen] strategic cooperation in key sectors”.
This dialogue will also extend to non-tariff and health barriers. This should facilitate the identification of mutually acceptable solutions to existing obstacles - such as cumbersome conformity assessments for the import of electrotechnical products, measures affecting poultry imports or restrictions on meat imports.
Both parties also undertake to promote sustainable investment in investment treaties.
Climate. Both sides pledged to contribute to the success of COP 24 in Katowice (3-14 December). They refer to the latest IPCC Special Report, which unequivocally confirms the negative impacts of climate change and stresses the need to reduce global emissions in all sectors. This is "crucial for achieving the temperature target set in the Paris Agreement”, the statement stresses, without mentioning the 1.5 degree target.
Mr Ramaphosa said that his country is "a strong supporter of the Paris Agreement", saying that "countries that would like to dilute or deviate from it are wrong".
MIGRATION Both sides undertake to strengthen cooperation on migration, "which requires a comprehensive international response", in particular to address the root causes of irregular migration. They stress that safe, orderly and regular migration can make a positive contribution to growth and sustainable development in countries of origin, transit and destination.
Mr Juncker told EUROPE that "all the problems surrounding the ratification of the Global Compact" had been mentioned and that he had invited the South African President “not to distance himself, although several European countries had unfortunately done so" (see other news).
President Ramaphosa, for his part, said his country "wanted to look at all the details" to try to make the right decision.
The two sides also discussed many other topics such as the upcoming G20 summit (in Argentina), of which South Africa is a member, the Iranian nuclear agreement or the ongoing negotiations on the agreement that will replace the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the ACP group of countries (of which South Africa is also a member) upon its expiry in February 2020. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang and Hermine Donceel)