The EU-27 sent a strong message to their African partners by affirming on Friday 16 October their determination to strengthen and renew the European Union’s Strategic Partnership with Africa with a view to a limited summit with the African Union scheduled for 9 December.
Indeed, there is no question that the postponement of the EU/AU summit to 2021 caused by the coronavirus will undermine this aspiration to take the Partnership to a higher level in all areas of cooperation and, a fortiori, in the context of the post-Covid-19 recovery of countries particularly hard hit by the impact of the crisis (see EUROPE 12581/4).
“We had a strategic debate on Africa in preparation for a strategic meeting on 9 December with African Union leaders to deepen and renew the Partnership”, European Council President Charles Michel told the press.
He said that Europeans share the conviction that there is a need to “focus more on investment support”, on the need to “develop the Partnership in the mutual interest”, on infrastructure support, and on a Partnership for Finance.
In this context, the EU will seek to develop a common approach to further discuss debt relief for African countries in multilateral fora, a necessity at a time when healthcare systems in Africa must be strengthened and post-Covid sustainable development must be targeted.
Investment - a major issue - should cover the digital and knowledge-based economy, renewable energies, transport, health and agri-food systems, stresses the European Council.
“We advocate, with a great spirit of consensus, the need to strengthen our support to Africa today and tomorrow. We will have a summit in December with the members of the African Union bureau. The discussion was an opportunity to prepare for this. We must support Africa in the context of the pandemic”, said French President Emmanuel Macron.
Referring to the prospects of “zero growth” and the devastating health, economic and social consequences for the continent, he stressed the need to support African countries in strengthening their health systems and in accessing vaccines under the ACT A (Act Accelerator) initiative launched in April by the WHO and its partners, as well as in economic and social terms.
“One of the key points of the December summit will be to present a strategy for financing this support”, Mr Macron stressed. He recalled that France supports a debt moratorium for African countries.
And he announced that France will organise a summit on the financing of the African economy in May 2021, in Paris.
“We want to have a meeting with African representatives here in Brussels on the eve of the December European Council. We want to raise our relationship with Africa to a new level”, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
According to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, both sides want to “do everything possible to support positive development on the African continent”. He also added: “This means, of course, that in addition to the development of cooperation and humanitarian aid, everything possible must be done to support positive economic dynamics in Africa”.
On migration, he reiterated the Austrian position: “We expect African countries to take back illegal migrants. It is unacceptable that we are spending billions on development cooperation and that the countries benefiting from it are not prepared to repatriate their nationals”.
Mr Kurz welcomed the reference in the European Council’s conclusions to its intent to encourage the African countries to address all aspects of migration, including illegal migration and the fight against smuggling networks, both between African countries and between the two continents.
The conclusions also refer to universal values, non-discrimination and equal rights and opportunities for all.
See the European Council conclusions: https://bit.ly/353aPsK (Original version in French by Aminata Niang with the editorial staff)