Minister Dlamini Zuma arrives in Brussels ahead of SA-EU Meeting

Brussels - South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma today Sunday 12 November 2006 arrived in Brussels, Belgium ahead of the scheduled SA-EU Joint Cooperation Council meeting scheduled for 13 – 14 November 2006.

Minister Dlamini Zuma accompanied by Minster Lulu Xingwana and Foreign Affairs Director-General Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba will participate in the SA-EU JCC within the context of ensuring increased market and trade access with a view to faster and shared economic growth in South Africa.

On Monday 13 November 2006, Minister Dlamini Zuma will sign the joint communiqué of the SA-Belgo Joint Commission, following bilateral discussions with Minister Karel De Gucht, the Belgian Federal Foreign Minister and Minister Armand De Decker, the Belgian Federal Development Minister.

On Tuesday 14 November Minister Dlamini Zuma will lead the South African delegation, including Minister Lulu Xingwana, Deputy Minister Derek Hanekom, Foreign Affairs Director-General Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba and Ambassador Dr Anil Sooklal to the SA-EU Joint Cooperation Council meeting before holding bilateral discussions with Mr Javier Solana following which Minister Dlamini Zuma will brief the SADC ambassadors based in Belgium.

The JCC will reflect on trade, development and science and technology co-operation over the past year, as well as the progress made in the mandatory review of the Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement (TDCA) which provides the legal framework for our current co-operation. The main emphasis of the meeting will therefore be on laying the groundwork for the full implementation of the TDCA and agreeing on a roadmap for the midterm review of the TDCA.

This historic JCC will also seek to achieve agreement on the broad framework for a proposed SA-EU Strategic Partnership which would involve moving from dialogue and exchanging views to active strategic co-operation and partnership on regional, continental and global levels.

South Africa and the EU share many common political values and beliefs, making both countries natural partners to promote development, socio-economic and political progress, as well as stability, in a globalising world. Both partners strongly believe in the primacy of the United Nations in advancing global peace and security, equality, democracy, human rights, good governance, tolerance and respect for the rule of law. Both countries also share a common vision of an African Continent which is prosperous, peaceful, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and united, and which contributes to a world that is just and equitable.

South Africa therefore welcomes the decision by the EU to discuss the broadening and deepening of relations through a Strategic Partnership based on an open, concrete and transparent dialogue between the two partners, pursued on the basis of mutual understanding and ownership. South Africa believes that the Strategic Partnership will build on our existing relations and will result in a mutually beneficial partnership that adds value to the EU's relations with South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Africa and the developing world.

South Africa believes that this JCC provides a unique opportunity to discuss the harmonization of trade regimes between our respective regions. Minister Dlamini Zuma will therefore lead discussions with her European Union counterparts on coherence between the TDCA trade review and the SADC-Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiation process in which South Africa is an active participant.

Minister Dlamini Zuma will also have high level political dialogue with the EU in troika format led by Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, and Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council Secretariat and EU High Representative on Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Discussions are expected to focus on, among others, peace and security issues in Africa and the Middle East, and an exchange of views on the stalled Doha Development Round.

Minister Dlamini Zuma will also use the opportunity to explain South Africa's objectives during its tenure on the United Nations Security Council.

Trade between South Africa and the EU has grown significantly since the provisional application of the TDCA in January 2000, which creates a free-trade area covering about 90% of bilateral trade implemented over an asymmetric, transitional period of 12 years. The EU remains South Africa's largest trade partner accounting for €37 billion worth of trade in 2005, just under 40% of South Africa's total imports and exports. EU Foreign Direct Investment into South Africa in 2004 totalled a further €4.6 billion.

The EU has also dedicated grants of €125 million per annum through the European Programme for Reconstruction and Development. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has been mandated with €825 million for infrastructure investments in South Africa from 2000-2006. South Africa hopes that this amount will be substantially increased to €1.5 billion.

Since the conclusion of the SA-EU Science and Technology Co-operation Agreement in 1996, South Africa has participated in almost 200 Framework Programme projects, contributing more than R200 million to South African research and technology and enabling South Africa to access cutting edge R&D projects worth close to R8 billion.

Issued by Ronnie Mamoepa on 082 990 4853

℅ Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001

12 November 2006