Peace and security, economic integration, trade and investment, and multilateralism will be on the agenda of the first ever joint ministerial meeting between the African Union and the European Union, on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 January in Brussels.
It will be an opportunity to discuss cooperation between the two twin institutions and to reaffirm the political will of both sides to strengthen their strategic partnership and identify how to build it on mutual ownership to lead to concrete results (see EUROPE 12156).
The meeting will start with a dinner on Monday 21 January following the EU Foreign Affairs Council session and the EU/ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.
The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the disputed 30 December presidential election is not explicitly on the agenda, but “it is inevitable” that it will be addressed, a senior European official said on Thursday. The President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, reported on Thursday 17 January that there were still “serious doubts about the conformity of the results proclaimed” by the Ceni (Independent National Electoral Commission). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)