Annex
EXPLANATION AND OPINION ON COUNCIL DOCUMENT
THE EU AND
AFRICA: TOWARDS
A STRATEGIC
PARTNERSHIP—THE
WAY FORWARD
AND KEY
ACHIEVEMENTS IN
2006
1. The EU's Strategy for Africa entitled
the EU and Africa: Towards a Strategic Partnership was agreed
by Heads of State and Government at the December 2005 European
Council during the UK presidency. In 2006, the Finnish presidency,
the European Commission and the Council Secretariat jointly produced
a progress report entitled The EU and Africa: Towards a Strategic
Partnership—The Way Forward and Key Achievements in 2006. This
document drew on a Joint Review by the Council Secretariat and
the Commission issued in October, and Member State responses to
a questionnaire sent by the Commission. The final review of progress
was adopted at the European Council on 14-15 December 2006.
2. This first progress report from the Council
is split into two sections, identifying priority actions for the
EU in 2007 and summarising progress on implementation in 2006.
PRIORITY ACTIONS
FOR 2007
3. This section is divided into four areas:
strengthening the strategic partnership with Africa, supporting
Africa's quest for peace and good governance, promoting broad
based economic growth and sustainable development, and investing
in people.
Strengthening the Strategic Partnership with Africa
4. Priority actions under the first area
include: reinforcing the political dialogue with the African Union
and Sub Regional Organisations and working towards the holding
of an EU Africa Summit in Lisbon in the second half of 2007 including
on a Joint EU-Africa Strategy; increasing coherence of external
policies, including in particular enhancing EU presence to the
AU in Addis; implementing and monitoring EU aid commitments; launching
the Development Cooperation Instrument and the European Neighbourhood
Instrument in 2007 totalling €28 billion alongside agreeing
the European Development fund for 2008-2013 totalling €22.7
billion, and agreeing to review progress in relations with Africa
in December 2007 and annually thereafter.
Support Africa's Quest for Peace and Good Governance
5. The report identifies priority actions
under the following areas: stepping up support for African capacity
building for conflict prevention, management and resolution, including
linking to concrete progress on the African Peace and Security
Architecture; continuing to work towards peace in Sudan and stability
in the Great Lakes region; combating the proliferation of Small
Arms and Light weapons; supporting good governance including through
the African Peer Review Mechanism and the Governance Initiative;
cooperating on democracy promotion, human rights and gender issues;
deploying EU Election Observation Missions; concluding agreements
with six African Countries under the Action Plan for Forest Law
Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), assisting five more
African countries to report against Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (EITI) criteria and implementing the Kimberly Process
Certification Scheme.
Broad-based Economic Growth and Sustainable Development
6. Priority areas for 2007 under this heading
include continuing to work for an ambitious, pro-development outcome
of the negotiations under the Doha Round; finalising Economic
Partnership Agreements as instruments for development and setting
up a transparent monitoring mechanism; striving to reach the target
on aid for trade of €1 billion from Member States and €1
billion from the EC by 2010 and agree a Joint EU Aid for Trade
Strategy; reaching agreement on revised Rules of Origin following
the review; continuing to implement the EU Action Plan on agricultural
commodity dependency; holding a second EU Africa Business Forum;
implementing the EU Africa Partnership on Infrastructure; further
promoting decent work for all in Africa; increasing attention
on food security; building on the review of the EU Action Plan
on Climate Change and Development due in 2007; and accelerating
efforts to provide clean water including reinvigorating the EU
Water Initiative.
Invest in people
7. Under this heading the following priority
actions would be taken during 2007: continuing to promote predictable
financing to long term national education sector programmes and
fostering regional centres for research through the Nyerere student
exchange programme; providing further long term financial and
technical support for African countries on health care; continuing
to contribute to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria; implementing
the EU Action Plan on Recruitment of Health Workers and supporting
other organisations such as the World Health Organisation, the
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the International
Finance Facility for Immunisation, making migration work for development
including following up the declarations adopted at the 2006 meetings
on migration held in Tripoli and Rabat.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
8. The second section of the document identifies
key achievements in the implementation of the EU Africa Strategy
during 2006. There are seven headings—dialogue and cooperation,
peace and security; human rights and good governance, regional
integration, trade, private sector development and interconnectivity;
migration and development; other key development issues and more
and better aid.
Dialogue and Cooperation
9. Under this heading the report points
to work undertaken in 2006 with the African Union on a Joint EU
Africa Strategy for adoption at the proposed EU Africa Summit
in 2007, and agreement to a consultation process to inform this
process. In addition during 2006 the two Commission Colleges met
and an institutional support programme for the African Union was
agreed for €55 million. The report recognises that several
Member States (including the UK) have expressed willingness to
support the African Union further once adequate financial management
systems are in place.
Peace and Security
10. The review explains that there has been
regular contact between the EU and AU on peace and security during
2006, including further dialogue on and support for the African
Peace and Security Architecture and the establishment of the African
Standby Force. The report refers to direct financial support for
several African-led peace operations, including €242 million
for Darfur from the African Peace Facility, in addition to bilateral
financing from Member States. The report also mentions specifically
the opening of a joint donor office in southern Sudan to coordinate
humanitarian assistance there. The UK is one of the Member States
involved. The review of progress refers to the 2006 agreement
to provide funding to the Africa Peace Facility of €300 million
from the 10th European Development Fund, and specific joint action
undertaken in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Somalia,
the Ivory Coast and in relation to the Ethiopia and Eritrea border.
The report also mentions the new European Union Concept for Strengthening
African Capabilities for the Prevention, Management and Resolution
of Conflicts and the 2006 launch of an assessment of long term
African needs in peace and security. Finally the report refers
to a new policy framework for Security Sector Reform adopted in
2006 and a presidency paper on Disarmament, Demobilisation and
Reintegration.
Human Rights and Governance
11. Under this heading the report refers
to ongoing discussions on human rights and governance under the
Cotonou agreement. The review also explains that election observation
missions were deployed in DRC, Uganda, Zambia, Mauritania and
assistance sent to Madagascar. The report refers to continuing
EU support to the Kimberley process, the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative, the Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement,
Governance and Trade, the Diamonds for Development in Liberia
and programmes on fisheries, energy and sustainable forestry.
The review also refers to the agreement by the Council in October
on the Governance Initiative, which will include support for the
Africa Peer Review Mechanism and for good governance linked to
the 10th European Development Fund.
Regional Integration, Trade, Private Sector Development
and Interconnectivity
12. The review of progress explains that
negotiations on Economic PartnershipAgreements (EPAs) have progressed
but that a number of important issues remain to be addressed.
The report mentions that some Member States (including the UK)
had financed studies to support the EPA process, and were supporting
those in Regional Economic Communities to better engage. The report
also mentions contributions on Aid for Trade as the EU works towards
the target of €1 billion by 2010. On infrastructure the
review refers to the agreement between the Commission and European
Investment Bank to set up a financial fund for infrastructure
in Africa under the EU Africa partnership on infrastructure. It
refers also to Member State and EC support to the Infrastructure
Consortium for Africa, the water sector, the African Development
Bank and the World Bank energy programmes. The review then turns
to the private sector mentioning the holding of the first EU Africa
Business from in Brussels in November 2006, support to the Investment
Climate Facility forAfrica and funding through the EU's Investment
Facility under the European Development Fund.
Migration and Development
13. Under this section the Report explains
that a regional Euro-Africa conference was organised in Rabat
in July and an EU Africa Ministerial Conference on Migration and
Development took place in Tripoli in November. The latter resulted
in a joint declaration on migration and development. The review
also refers to complementary work by Member States. The UK's policy
to address the brain drain of key workers coming to its borders
is mentioned.
Other Key Development Issues
14. The review of progress explains that
the European Union remained involved in support for the Education
sector during 2006, including significant financial input to the
Education for All Initiative and support for other mechanisms
that encourage research and technology such as the Nyerere Programme.
On HIV and other poverty related diseases, the Global Fund to
fight AIDS, TB and Malaria was likely to receive 65% of its contributions
from the EU in the financial year. On food security, the report
refers to support for the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the
World Food Programme and for regional early warning systems. The
EC was finalising its food security programming for 2007-2010.
The review then refers to Member State support to the Global Environment
Facility, the High Seas Task force on illegal fishing, implementation
of the G8 commitment to help Africa benefit fully from the Global
Climate Observation System (GCOS) and chemicals management. The
UK is involved in each of these activities. The report goes on
to explain how the EU has pledged €210 million to support
Africa to address Avian Flu. On science and technology the report
refers to numerous research activities but specifically speaks
of the EU Framework programme for Research and Development which
will come into force in 2007. Finally the report refers to
the Commission-led international conference on decent work for
all that took place in December, and Member State support to organisations
such as the Youth Employment Network and the International Labour
Organisation.
More and Better Aid
15. The Report suggests that the EU remains
on track to reach the collective ODA targets of 0.39% by 2006
and 0.56% by 2010. The report states that for Member States with
a long standing relationship with Africa, the Strategy has become
one of several sets of commitments to Africa in addition to existing
national policy and implementation frameworks. The UK falls within
this category. In relation to the Member States who joined the
EU in 2004, the review states that the EU Africa Strategy has
greatly helped shape emerging policy frameworks for cooperation
with Africa and encouraged these countries to intensify the cooperation
with Africa. The document finally looks at increased aid effectiveness,
reporting that over 2006 much had been done to respond to the
Paris Declaration including agreeing a format for Country Strategy
Papers and principles towards joint multi-annual programming.
The report also identifies joint programming underway for example
in Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Somalia and Ethiopia.
OPINION
16. "The Way Forward and Key Achievements
in 2006" underlines the substantial activity in 2006 by the
European Commission and Member Status to implement the commitments
of the EU's Strategy for Africa. It is clear that significant
progress has been made in each of the areas. However, as the strategy
was written to guide Commission and Member State contributions,
to Africa over the next 10 years as development funding increases
there remains much to be done and this is recognised within the
report. The priorities identified for 2007 reflect UK expectations.
They draw on specific areas of ongoing work in the Commission
and by Member States, expected reviews or agreements due in 2007,
such as that expected on the European Development Fund and gaps
identified in 2006, such as annual monitoring of the relationship,
and dialogue with China on Africa.
17. The UK was fully involved in contributing
to the "The Way Forward and Key Achievements in 2006".
We worked closely with the Commission and the Finns to ensure
substantial analysis of the progress over the past year and identification
of actions for 2007. The UK continues to emphasise to EU partners,
the need to respond to the commitments in the strategy. This is
particularly the case on trade where challenges remain with the
ongoing negotiations under the DOHA round and the negotiation
of Economic Partnership Agreements. The UK is also encouraging
EU partners to focus on long term predictable support for African
countries' priorities in improving access to basic services such
as health, education and water. In addition, particular and urgent
challenges still remain in supporting African efforts to achieve
peace and security. The EU will be intensifying its support for
capacity building with the African Union over the next year. The
UK welcomes the recent conclusion of the needs assessment of African
capacity building and looks forward to early implementation of
its recommendations. The UK is also seeking a greater focus this
year on helping Africa face the challenges of climate change.
18. The UK provided a full response to the
internal questionnaire from the European Commission on bilateral
actions against the Strategy in 2006. It is positive that,
while individual Member States were not identified within the
text, the extensive UK response to the review meant that several
UK examples of support for the Strategy were included. For example,
the review mentioned the creation of the joint donor office in
Southern Sudan, the measures introduced to tackle brain drain
in one Member State and joint programming being carried out in
several countries where the UK is involved.
19. It is positive that the report agrees
to review progress annually rather than biannually. We will be
interested to see how this will fit with the new Joint Strategy
to be agreed at the proposed EU Africa Summit. The UK will continue
to work with the Presidencies, Council Secretariat and the Commission
as they work with the African Union, African Member States and
civil society to design the Joint Strategy.
| 
