Brussels, 24/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Pursuing his objective of strengthening links between Europe and the continent of Africa, European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani presented a new communication on the European Union-Africa partnership on Wednesday 24 June. The communication, “Connecting Africa and Europe: Towards enhanced transport cooperation”, is the starting point of a strategic dialogue between the EU and the African Union (AU) in the area of transport, which, in the long term, will put in place a Euro-African transport network (see EUROPE 9831). This is only the start of the process, which forms part of the EU-Africa partnership, in which all will have to “show willing”, according to Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade who is responsible, inter alia, for infrastructure issues within the AU. The ministerial conference on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), scheduled to be held in Naples in October, will provide the opportunity to put in place an informal transport forum, within the joint EU-Africa partnership. The stage is likely to be the drafting of a priority action plan, based on the needs identified by the AU. Progress in implementing the action plan will be assessed at the next EU-Africa Summit, at the end of 2010.
“I knew exactly what the fact were when I accepted the invitation of the European Commission Vice-President, because, at the Addis Abeba summit, he convinced us of his way, of his sincere concern for Africa,” Wade said in Brussels, at a joint press conference with Tajani. “The debate on whether or not infrastructure is needed has been overtaken. What is needed is to know how to build good roads in Africa, how we can build this infrastructure together,” he went on. The Senegalese President did not hesitate to point out what his continent's most urgent needs were. “The first obstacle is feasibility studies”, with Africa not always having the money to fund them and asking banks takes such a long time. “The European Union could help us in this,” said Wade, proposing “together freeing up 40 million dollars or euro” and then “working together to find the funding”. “If Africa does not have roads and railways, it is because there was no political will,” Wade said, quoting the example of the Euro-Mediterranean Union. At a time when China and India are becoming more influential in Africa, Europe had to make a “genuinely competitive” offer, warned Wade. “I think that this work consists of trying to cooperate for the stability of Africa, for its economic development,” said the Commissioner, pointing out that the project was especially about linking EU and African transport networks with the aim, ultimately, of creating a high quality and performance network in Africa. “We are offering Africa a genuine strategic partnership in transport based on a more systematic cooperation in all transport sectors, including urban transport. With appropriate infrastructure and quality services, both between the two continents and in Africa itself, transport will become one of the engines of the continent's development which will contribute - amongst other things - to stabilising migration flows,” said Tajani. He pointed out that Africa, the continent with the highest transport costs in the world, had the lowest road density, a poorly connected rail network (15 African countries do not have a rail network) and the oldest sea fleet (more than 80% of the ships flying the flag of an African state is over 15 years old, compared with the world average of 15%).
The communication adopted on Wednesday proposes action to link the two continents, share transport instruments and involve European and African transport sector players more. It aims to connect the trans-European and trans-African networks, in particular, through developing a common map of transport infrastructures (including through aligning infrastructure planning and identification of points of connection between the two networks); - cooperation in strategic sectors, including air (continuation of liberalisation air markets begun by the Yamoussoukro decision, improving the quality of African airlines, the majority of which are on the EU black list, in the run up to the Single Sky) and sea (simplification of customs and administrative procedures, port security, beefing up efforts against piracy); - satellite navigation through the development in Africa of earth-based infrastructure to complement the European EGNOS system (satellite signal overage system) (A.By./transl.rt)