The EU announced on the morning of Wednesday 9 December that the videoconference meeting between EU and African Union leaders, scheduled for later that day, and due to take place the day before the European Council meeting, has been postponed “for agenda reasons”.
The agenda for the videoconference meeting was only published on the Council of the EU website on Tuesday. Moreover, although Charles Michel, Ursula von der Leyen and Angela Merkel were expected to attend on the EU side, the African Union had not confirmed by late on Tuesday afternoon who would be participating (see EUROPE 12618/3).
“Last night we received confirmation of the postponement”, a senior EU official said on Wednesday morning. According to Devex, quoted by Politico, a letter sent from the African Union Commission to the AU office on Tuesday stated that Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa and the current chairperson of the African Union, “recommended” that the meeting be postponed “until further notice due to the low level of representation at the Heads of State level”.
Charles Michel had requested the restricted format videoconference meeting following postponement of the EU/AU summit to 2021 as a result of the pandemic. When asked about the likelihood of a restricted format meeting if the EU/AU summit does take place in 2021, the same source stated that “at the moment we are just talking about a postponement”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)