Brussels, 20/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Council looked on Tuesday 20 November at the preparations for the EU/Africa Summit which is to be held in Lisbon on 8 and 9 December. A joint Africa-European Union strategy and a first action plan (2008-2010), approved by the Africa-EU ministerial troika held in Accra (Ghana) on 31 October are due to be adopted at the summit. The development ministers held an orientation debate on the mobilisation of development cooperation instruments and resources to support the strategy and action plan. The strategy, which is based on the principle that Africa and Europe are linked by history, culture, geography and a community of values, aims to put in place an overall framework for relations between the two regions. It looks at recent developments affecting these relations: the birth of the African Union, the emergence of political issues such as global security, migration and climate change. It also reaffirms the relations between Europe and Africa in a context where the presence of other actors is increasingly important. The Commission summarised the aims of the strategy in a communication in June 2007.
In the draft document which will be adopted in Lisbon, the parties engage to cooperate closely in order to provide the funding needed for the implementation of the strategy and the successive action plans. The financial instruments used to this end will be the European development fund, the development cooperation instrument (DCI), the European neighbourhood and partnership instrument (ENPI), the stability instrument and thematic programmes from EU financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank. These instruments will be complemented by extra contributions from the Member States, as well as, as far as possible, African financial instruments and other contributions from the Member States of the African Union. An intervention from African financial institutions, such as the African Development Bank is also envisaged. Africa and the European Union will ensure optimal usage of these financial resources and will cooperate closely to create synergies between the existing cooperation agreements and to strengthen their partnership. The strategy will be subject to regular evaluation, the document notes. Joint annual progress reports will be published. They will concentrate on policies implemented by the plan to see whether the strategy is continuing down the right path. These reports will be presented at meetings of EU/Africa ministerial troikas which will be charged with evaluating progress. The reports will also be presented every three years to the heads of state and government at Summits held alternately in Africa and Europe. For the period 2008-2010 there are eight priority action areas pursuing shared European and African interests: 1) peace and security; 2) democratic governance and human rights; 3) trade and regional integration; 4) the Millennium Development Goals; 5) energy; 6) climate change; 7) migration, mobility and employment, 8) science, the information society and space. (I.L.)