‘Making EU-Africa Relations Future-Proof’ - Special session of the ‘Fridays of the Commission’

How can European Union (EU)-Africa relations move forward in 2014?

A special session of the Fridays of the Commission on the theme: “Making Africa - EU Relations Future – proof’’ will take place on 28 February 2014 at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The event, organised by the Department of Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), comes at an important time, with the Africa - EU Summit in April 2014.

This thirteenth session of the Fridays of the Commission will be an opportunity for people to look back at the successes and challenges of the partnership, and revisit strategic questions on the nature and the future of Africa - EU relations.

The debate will focus on: the achievements of the relationship since the Lisbon Treaty in 2007; contentious political issues such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the new and persisting challenges between the EU and Africa which according to Faten Aggad, the Programme Manager Africa’s Change Dynamics at ECDPM says:

“Five years have passed since the Joint Africa-EU Strategy was launched in Lisbon. The realities of 2014 are different from those of 2008 and the Summit of April 2014 represents a golden opportunity to reposition the partnership in this new global context so that it can deliver on the expectations of both European and African partners.”

In addition Dr. René N'Guettia Kouassi, Director of Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission also says:

"Whatever sentiments of suspicion or friendship that Europeans evoke in Africans, and vice versa, Africa and Europe are obliged to cooperate. They are forced to live side by side, and see their differences as a source of enrichment as well as share their experiences based on shared values, aimed at promoting common interests and achieving shared strategic objectives like the management of global governance."

The event will include an information fair at the side of the meeting to allow participants to learn about the different activities around Africa-EU relations.

The outcomes of the day will be published in the ‘Bulletin of the Friday of the Commission’ and disseminated to a wide audience for publicity including AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Universities and Development Partners among others.

AU PRC Members, AUC Staff, Members of the Diplomatic Corp in Ethiopia, UN Agency staff, Senior Students at the University of Addis Ababa, Academicians, Civil Society Organisations and indeed all interested parties are cordially invited to this special event.

Notes to editors

ECDPM is a non-partisan foundation, which aims to facilitate efforts to revitalise and deepen relations between Europe and Africa.

ECDPM has a collection of blogs on the issue of Africa - EU relations: http://www.ecdpm-
talkingpoints.org/tag/challenges-2014/

The event is also supported by the JAES Support Mechanism, which is a mechanism put in place to support the implementation of the existing JAES Action Plan.

The Africa - EU Summit will take place in 2-3 April 2014 – it will continue talks on the on-going EU-Africa partnership, which was set up in the Joint Africa EU Strategy in 2007.

Contact: Esther Azaa Tankou, Directorate of Information and Communication, African Union Commission, Tel: +251 911361185, E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org or Emily Barker at eb@ecdpm.org or +32 474 12 34 73 for more information.

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