In an increasingly tense global geopolitical context and in the face of a growing trend towards a multipolar world, the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council will mobilise all the capacities of European development policy to serve the EU’s foreign policy objectives in partner countries, particularly in Africa, through dialogue and cooperation, “defending the interests and values” of the EU.
The UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development will be the common thread running through Belgium’s six-month programme at the head of the EU Council in the field of development, making use of the Global Gateway investment strategy (€300 billion until the end of 2027) and the integrated approach mobilising the EU, its Member States and its financial institutions.
“The Presidency will further support the sustainable development of communities and their infrastructure and work towards health as a basic right. To do so, it will work to strengthen health systems, ensure equitable and high quality health services and products for all, and advance the EU Global Health Strategy”, the work programme emphasises.
Global health is also mentioned as a major priority in relations with Africa, which features prominently in the programme as a ‘key partnership’, in line with the sixth African Union/EU Summit of February 2022 (see EUROPE 12894/1) and European investment in the local production of messenger RNA vaccines in Africa (see EUROPE 13317/20, 13269/2).
The Belgian Presidency “will work to intensify cooperation with the African Union, regional organisations and individual countries”.
It cites human and economic development, climate change, food security, health, energy, and hybrid and security-related threats as common challenges to be tackled together, and plans to hold an event on 19 and 20 March on the theme of ‘Building an African Union/EU Partnership in Global Health’. It’s in May of 2024 that the EU hopes to see the conclusion of a legally binding WHO Pandemic Agreement, mentioned in the ‘Health’ section of the programme.
In the area of peace and security, the Presidency will make use of the European Peace Facility (EPF) and CSDP missions and operations, and will build on the EU’s specific regional strategies, “including those on the Great Lakes, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, while working to adapt EU actions to changing environments as needed”.
Divided, the Member States failed in December to agree on whether and how to recalibrate the EU’s integrated strategy for the Sahel adopted in 2021 (see EUROPE 12701/6), in the light of successive military coups in the region, notably the one in Niger on 26 July (see EUROPE 13311/5). ECOWAS recently decided to ease its sanctions and Germany to recognise the transitional authorities in Niger, which the EU does not recognise.
The Belgian Presidency also intends to improve the EU’s strategic communication “to showcase the added value of the EU’s strategic partnership with Africa” to African countries that might be tempted to favour partnerships with other powers, such as Russia, for example, and “to better adjust to our African partners’ needs and views”.
In terms of humanitarian aid, the Belgian Presidency will follow on from the Spanish and Swedish Presidencies.
In the face of multiple large-scale humanitarian crises, it has announced that it will continue to tackle the funding gap for humanitarian needs around the world “by advocating for high-quality and flexible funding and drawing attention to underfunded and forgotten crises”, those that don’t make the headlines.
It will also continue to focus on protecting and preserving humanitarian space, in accordance with humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law.
To see the programme: https://aeur.eu/f/a4i (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)