President Thabo Mbeki concludes visit to Portugal for the EU-Africa Summit

 Lisbon- South African President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday 9 December concluded his official visit to Portugal where he led a South African government delegation to the EU-Africa Summit held in Lisbon from Saturday-Sunday 8-9 December.

President Mbeki was accompanied to the Summit by Mrs. Zanele Mbeki and supported by Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad, Foreign Affairs Director-General Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba, Deputy Director-General Jessie Duarte and South Africa’s Ambassadors to Portugal, EU and the AU.

South Africa participated in the Summit within the framework of strengthening relations with EU countries with a view to advancing the Consolidation of the African Agenda. “What we (Africa) want from Europe is not a relationship based on donor-recepient conditions but a partnership. We ( Africa) are not coming to them(EU) as a beggar ” said President Mbeki

During the Summit, President Mbeki led discussions of the EU-Africa Heads of State and Government on the issue of Good Governance and human rights. Other topics discussed included Peace and Security; Energy and Climate Change; Migration; and Infrastructure and Development.

The EU-Africa Summit endorsed the Africa-EU Strategy developed at Ministerial level focusing on Peace and Security; Good Governance and human rights; trade and regional integration including developmental issues.

One of the critical issues discussed by the Summit was the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). In this regard, President Mbeki noted that “these EPA’s will not contribute to the development of the African-Carribean-Pacific countries as they do not assist in fighting poverty”

“They also include certain issues that are on the agenda of WTO. They are not constructed on the same basis as other agreements in the Doha Development Round. They (EU) offered us to sign the interim agreement and negotiate the conditions at a later stage. In this regard, President Mbeki indicated that “the Chairperson of the AU Commission will consider it as a proposal and respond later”

With regard to Zimbabwe, President Mbeki indicated that Zimbabwe was not a major focus of the Summit but had received attention of a few countries. In this regard, prompted by the lack of information on the facilitation process, President Mbeki explained to the Summit “decisions taken by SADC with regard to Zanu-PF and MDC meeting and that they were making a lot of progress”

During his visit to Portugal, President Mbeki held bilateral discussions with a number of African and European leaders. President Mbeki returns to South Africa on Monday 10 December ahead of the scheduled ANC NEC meeting.

Issued by Ronnie Mamoepa at 082-990-4853
C/O South African Embassy
Portugal
9 December 2007.