21. Progress of the EU-Africa dialogue
| (24684)
10919/03
COM(03) 316
| Commission Communication: The EU-Africa dialogue.
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 23 June 2003
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| Deposited in Parliament | 1 July 2003
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| Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 7 July 2003
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | 21 July 2003
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
21.1 There has been dialogue and cooperation between the EU and
Africa for some time, but it was conducted at continental level
for the first time in April 2000 when the first EU-Africa Summit
was held in Cairo. Every African country and every EU Member
State participated.
21.2 A second EU-Africa Summit was to be held in Lisbon in April
this year but it has been postponed. The Commission says that
this Communication is intended to pave the way for high-level
political meetings to resume.
The Commission Communication
21.3 The Commission comments that, by deciding to deepen its own
integration, Africa opened itself up to broader partnerships with
the rest of the world. Its new pan-African momentum has enabled
it to play a more substantial role on the international scene,
as was evident at the World Summit for Sustainable Development
in Johannesburg in 2002.
21.4 The Communication considers the progress of the EU-Africa
dialogue to date, the new context created by the launch of NEPAD
(the New Partnership for Africa's Development) and the African
Union, and the state of the dialogue on eight priority themes.
It also outlines objectives and orientations for future dialogue.
It suggests that these objectives should be to strengthen EU-Africa
relations, eradicate poverty and promote human rights, democracy
and the rule of law. To meet them, the Commission argues for
a comprehensive political dialogue with the newly-founded pan-African
bodies, addressing issues such as peace and security, governance,
sustainable development, democracy, the rule of law and human
rights. Given the level of instability that characterises most
African regions, the top priority must be conflict prevention
and peace building.
21.5 The dialogue should complement and add value to existing
dialogues at country and regional level, which mostly take place
within the context of the Cotonou Agreement and the Barcelona
Process. The Commission suggests that it should focus on political
and global issues of common interest, helping to build functional
governmental structures and to take into account the political
dimension of development issues on a continental basis, for instance
those of regional integration and trade, debt, health and food
security.
21.6 As the panoply of different agreements between the EU and
Africa hinders the EU's ability to respond to pan-African initiatives,
the Commission suggests a number of practical measures to support
continental integration. These are:
- trade instruments that facilitate intra-African trade;
- reforming the procurement rules for EU-funded projects so
suppliers from more African countries can bid; and
- pooling EU aid in support of an operational EU-Africa agenda.
21.7 The First Bi-Regional Group of Senior Officials decided in
October 2001 that the dialogue should be organised around eight
priority themes:
- under the top priority, prevention and settlement of conflicts,
which is already a priority for the African Union (AU), the EU
recently established a new programme to fund the operational activities
of the AU's Peace and Security Council and to work on AU capacity
building. The Commission says that better co-ordination is needed
between donors, the AU and sub-regional organisations in order
to mobilise more support for the new AU peace and security mechanisms.
Consideration should be given to pooling EU support for an operational
EU-Africa agenda. This could be used to establish a continent-wide
facility to fund peace support operations to stabilise areas that
are hindered in their development by recent or long-standing conflicts.
Measures need to be found to improve the governance of natural
resources as these are a source of conflict;
ii) on human rights, democracy and good governance,
an Action Plan has been developed on human trafficking, support
for African institutions is to be given through the European Initiative
for Democracy and Human Rights and there are efforts at a continental
and regional level to fight corruption and money-laundering.
The Commission highlights the need to tackle the issue of illegal
logging, and to deepen co-operation in the development of human
resources and suggests that migration issues be discussed;
iii) a shared understanding of food security and the
role of food aid has been established. It has also been agreed
that early warning systems need to be evaluated and that African
capacities for implementing agreements on biotechnology need to
be strengthened. The Commission suggests that the future dialogue
should focus on the political dimensions of food security;
iv) on HIV/AIDS and other pandemics, the EU and Africa
have agreed on the need to strengthen health systems and on a
joint approach on tiered pricing, technology transfer and local
production in order to increase access to affordable medicines.
Discussions continue on several questions: the difficulty of
access to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and slow
disbursement from it, the need for a specific health fund for
Africa and how to convert Africa's debt into a programme to fight
HIV/AIDS and poverty reduction;
v) on the environment, there is a need for further
follow-up on the EU Water[52]
and Energy Initiatives launched at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg in September 2002;
vi) the Cotonou Agreement, signed in June 2000, and the Economic
Partnership Agreements under negotiation, give a high priority
to regional integration and trade. Co-operation and dialogue
are also pursued on the WTO Doha Development Agenda. The EU is
the biggest source of trade-related assistance and capacity building
in Africa;
vii) there are diverging views on the debt crisis in
Africa and this will be discussed further before a summit is held.
The Commission will finance a study into debt sustainability
in Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC); and
viii) a set of guiding principles and recommendations for
action on the return of illicitly exported cultural goods
has been drawn up. The EU is working on an inventory of all activities
on which EU and African stakeholders are currently cooperating.
21.8 The Commission suggests that there are a number of ways to
make the EU-Africa dialogue more flexible, simplified and direct
in future. These include:
- EU/Africa Summits every three to four years;
- Ministerial meetings in between the summits;
- establishing a smaller co-ordinating working group of 10-20
officials;
- a regular dialogue between the AU and EU Heads of Mission
in Addis Ababa;
- holding a Brussels-based dialogue with African Heads of Mission;
and
- more contact between the EU and AU Commissions.
The Government's view
21.9 The Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(Mr Bill Rammell) says that the Commission is right to try and
focus the content of the EU-Africa dialogue on political issues,
but the proposal that the dialogue should focus on 'political
and global issues of common interest' is too broad. He says that
the priorities should be to promote peace and security, and good
governance. Good governance is a precondition for growth and
reducing poverty.
21.10 The Minister regards the Commission's suggestions on the
process as constructive. The burden on Ministers should be limited
and there should be no commitment to another Heads of State or
Government meeting after the Lisbon Summit. Whether and when
to hold a further summit should be based on how successful the
dialogue is after the Lisbon Summit and the decision should, in
future, be taken at EU-Africa Ministerial meetings. A very occasional
forum of Member States and outside experts might be convened.
This format was used successfully to address a specific issue
in the case of the Swedish initiative on human trafficking.
21.11 The Minister says that he believes the paper to be slightly
optimistic about the prognosis for NEPAD and the AU. Both are
at an early stage and are fragile. How the AU will absorb NEPAD
has yet to be worked out. The EU needs to commit long-term support
to NEPAD and the AU, recognising that both will evolve with the
EU's sustained support. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)
is a fundamental aspect of NEPAD. It should be acknowledged in
the paper that the APRM will, over time, share the task of promoting
better governance. The EU could develop partnerships on economic
and political governance issues with African countries undergoing
review.
21.12 The Minister welcomes the proposal to establish a flexible,
well-resourced mechanism to finance peace support operations in
Africa.
Conclusion
21.13 We regularly consider individual proposals with an African
dimension, but this Communication is unusual in that it looks
at the whole continent. An increasing amount of EU effort is
expended on considering what can be done to help Africa to build
on its success stories and tackle the formidable challenges of
the continent as a whole. The Commission describes these as its
increasing poverty, daunting health and education problems, and
the growing list of crises, conflicts and failed states.
21.14 The Commission floats the idea of a continent-wide facility
to finance peace-support operations, which the Minister welcomes.
Should this idea be taken up by the Council and developed further,
we ask him to provide us with ample time to consider any such
proposal before it is adopted by the Council.
21.15 We now clear this document.
52 (24491) 8864/03;see HC xxviii (2002-03), paragraph
2 (2 July 2003). Back
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