The joint fight against the pandemic in the run-up to the sixth EU/AU summit, scheduled for next February (instead of the end of 2020), will be at the heart of the second African Union/European Union Foreign Affairs Ministerial Meeting to be held Tuesday 26 October in Kigali (Rwanda).
The ambassadors of the EU27 to the EU (Coreper) agreed on Friday 15 October on the EU’s position for a draft joint communiqué to be adopted on 26 October at a meeting co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Chair of the AU Executive Council, Christophe Lutundula Apala Pen' Apala, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
According to a spokesperson, the discussion will include: - AU-EU cooperation in building resilience; - peace, security and governance; - migration and mobility.
On the most contentious issues of the future AU/EU enhanced strategic partnership, namely the post-Cotonou Agreement, migration and gender issues, the EU Council, which is to validate the draft, was asked to take into account the sensitivities expressed.
It is understood that negotiations on the text will continue until the Senior Officials’ meeting on 25 October, at which the joint communiqué will be finalised before it is adopted by the ministers.
According to the draft text seen by EUROPE, the AU and EU are expected to emphasise their concern that the consequences of the pandemic threaten stability and prosperity, and that “vaccines are essential to ending the pandemic”.
The ministers are expected to welcome the AU’s leading role in coordinating Africa’s response to the pandemic and the support provided by the EU. They are expected to agree to strengthen cooperation on equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics, and treatment and to welcome the EU’s contribution to the Covax Facility, its commitment to increase both dose-sharing by the end of the year, and the EU’s contribution to vaccination campaigns in Africa.
The ministers are expected to agree to strengthen local manufacturing of vaccines and other health products in Africa and to stress the need for the two continents to work more closely together on the post-Covid-19 green recovery.
EU recognition of the Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India under licence from Astra Zeneca/Oxford and distributed through Covax, will reportedly be addressed. Both parties are expected to stress that this vaccine meets all WHO requirements. The EU supports the development of a vaccination certificate that it would recognise as equivalent to the EU’s Covid-19 digital certificate.
The AU wants all EU Member States to be encouraged to recognise all vaccines on the WHO emergency use list. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)