Cairo, 31/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The first EU-Africa summit, on 3 and 4 April in Cairo, is preceded until the final day by preparatory meetings not only at the level of foreign ministers but also at the level of officials and diplomats, who are to meet again on Saturday in the aim of reducing the number of last unresolved aspects in the texts to be submitted first of all to ministers. Two ministerial meetings, one European and the other African, are scheduled, separately, for Sunday, for the very last finalisation of the texts to be presented to the heads of state and government.
- Participation. In addition to the EU president-in-office, Portuguese national Guttierez, and his OAU counterpart, Algerian President Bouteflika, and that of the host country, President Moubarak, other participants are announced. Mr Jacques Chirac will be there as well as the German Chancellor and the Prime Ministers of Spain and of the three Benelux countries. There will also be many participants on the African side. Libya will be taking part as an African full UN member state but the arrival in Cairo of Mr Khadafi does not yet seem to be an acquired fact. Mr Prodi will be there, accompanied by Commissioners Nielson and Patten. The OAU secretary general will be admitted with observer status. No other organisation, whether African regional organisations (UEMO, SADC, UAM, ECOWAS, etc.) or international (IMF, World Bank, or even the African Development Bank) has been invited.
- The question of follow-up and other open points. Among the main points to be settled there is still the question of follow-up. The idea of another meeting at such a high level has not been ruled out but the EU prefers the heads of State to decide on this and to give their stances on the "follow-up" and frequency of summits (the idea of a second summit in three years' time is admitted but without setting a regular rate for summits). Must sector-specific ministerial meetings be programmed in the meantime? According to an OAU source, "the EU has accepted the concept of continuity and not of regularity, and it can only agree to the holding in Europe of a second summit at a date and place to be announced in Cairo". For the EU, which recommends "flexibility", follow up to the summit must be organised in the existing frameworks, the Barcelona Process and ACP. The OAU admits that there is no specific framework for institutionally structuring this new dialogue between the EU and Africa, but the immediate rejection of future development would be considered as a disappointment.
Various other subjects, classical themes of African or European diplomats, remain to be clarified but are not the subject of major divergence. Egypt would like to set out the goal, already presented in the Barcelona Process, of establishing denuclearised zones (mainly aiming at the Middle East). The African countries take up a request made during post-Lomé negotiations on the refunding of cultural goods taken during colonial pillaging. The question of the debt is of course mentioned. The European Commission recalls that the Community is not concerned since the Africans owe it nothing specific. Their debts towards private creditors are to be settled in the appropriate places, first the "Club de Paris". Other subjects are to be specified: the fight against the corrupted and those who corrupt in Euro-African relations; military spending to be contained within acceptable limits, etc.
- Unfolding of the summit. The organisation of the opening ceremony like the work, on Monday afternoon and Tuesday, appears to meet the concern of not constraining the heads of state and government present to listen to a long series of speeches but to give them the opportunity to directly discuss the most sensitive themes which will be tackled in the three discussion groups to be formed: a) economic and social (Monday afternoon); b) political dialogue, human rights, democracy, good governance and conflict prevention (Tuesday morning); c) debate on the general themes of development. The opening speeches are reserved for the president of the host country, to the two presidents-in-office of the EU and of the OAU, and to President Prodi. UN Secretary General kofi Annan will be invited to give a brief address. Mr Javier Solana will take the floor during the closing session. The other personalities, five heads of delegations on both sides, will be invited to take the floor in each of the three working groups.
- Conclusions of the Action Plan. The different chapters that will make up the two final and parallel documents (the Plan having of course a more operational content) have been prepared with a view to discussion in the three above-mentioned groups. They will both refer to the common determination to promote special relations between Africa and the EU, especially in the field of trade (to play in favour of a fair trading system allowing for Africa and developing countries in general to be inserted into the world economy) and more generally in all fields of international policy and conflict prevention (which are indeed explicitly mentioned, including that of the Western Sahara for which Morocco has already agreed to the wording).
One chapter is devoted to regional and sub-regional cooperation. The EU intends encouraging this, the African countries agree, and are even making of this a "strategic element" of their development policy. They readily recall that they are already engaged on this path by marking it out institutionally ("Lagos Action Plan" in 1980, "Abudja Treaty" in 1991).
The Summit's conclusions then turn to the economic situation and potential cooperation projects to encourage investments, the development of private sectors, infrastructures, and political aspects: human rights, democracy, the management of public affairs, terrorism (regarded as unacceptable whatever the motivation), conflicts, combating drugs and illiteracy, the weakness of education and health systems and food safety. As for immigration, the Africans recognise the EU's right to be concerned at the growth in uncontrolled flows, but want to draw special attention to the economic causes that fuel it and to the harm of racism. Last point: the financial means to act on the actions being envisaged. The African countries speak of the need for "adequate funding" without other details, and would like a "Marshall Plan" for their continent.
