Among the themes of common interest that will be discussed at the annual meeting of the European Commission and the African Union Commission at the African Union’s headquarters in Addis Ababa on Thursday 27 February will be growth, employment, green and digital transition, peace, security and governance, mobility and migration.
The meeting between the twin bodies will be co-chaired by Ursula von der Leyen and Moussa Faki Mahamat. The meeting is intended to lay the foundations for a stronger, updated strategic partnership (see EUROPE 12427/7, 12424/5).
It will be the tenth meeting of its kind, but the first for the von der Leyen Commission, which plans to make the AU/EU partnership a strategic priority during its mandate. Von der Leyen reinforced this message by making her first visit abroad after taking office a trip to Addis Ababa (see EUROPE 12381/20).
In a statement issued on Tuesday, February 25, she is quoted as saying that “one of our main objectives is to turn the green and digital transformation of our economies into opportunities for our youth”.
Josep Borrell, the Vice-President of the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, all of the other Commission’s Vice-Presidents, and 22 European Commissioners will accompany her, thereby demonstrating the importance and extent of the planned future partnership. The plan for members of the European Commission to travel to Addis Ababa in such numbers will go ahead, as the COVID-19 epidemic has so far had very little impact in Africa (see EUROPE 12432/7). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)