Notes following Media Briefing by Deputy Director-General Gert Grobler, Media Centre, Amphitheatre, Union Buildings, Wednesday 5 December 2007

EUROPEAN UNION – AFRICA SUMMIT

The EU – Africa Summit will be preceded by a preparatory Foreign Ministers meeting that will take place in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt 5-6 December 2007 and most of our delegation have already arrived in Sharm El-Sheik – the Minister assisted by Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad, the Director-General Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, Ambassador Duarte, Ambassador Sooklal, Ambassador Pepane and other senior officials.

The delegation to the Summit on 8-9 December 2007 will be led by President Thabo Mbeki, assisted by Minister Dlamini Zuma, Minister Mpahlwa, Deputy Minister Pahad, Director-General Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba and other officials.

The Preparatory meeting takes place on Thursday 6 December 2007 and will be preceded by a working dinner tonight Wednesday 5 December 2007.  There will be a number of sessions tomorrow Thursday 6 December 2007.  A plenary session will be held in the morning during which contributions will be made by the Foreign Minister of Egypt as the host country, the current chair of the African Union – Ghana, the current EU chair – Portugal, and the various heads of the African and European Commissions and various other countries.

This plenary session will be followed by a General Debate during which the five African Foreign Ministers representing the five geographical regions of the continent and similarly, five representatives from the EU side will address the delegates.

The last session will be devoted to the consideration and the adoption by the Ministers of the draft documents prepared for the Africa Union – EU Troika and that will be followed by a joint press conference which will be chaired by the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Ghana, and Portugal.

This is as far as the logistics for Sharm El-Sheik are concerned.

Perhaps I could say something about the logistics for the Summit: Heads of State and Government will arrive in Lisbon during Friday 7 December 2007.  A cocktail reception and musical presentation will be hosted by Portugal that evening.

The opening session will begin on Saturday 8 December 2007.  This will include speeches by the EU and the AU Presidencies and Commissions, the European and Pan-African Parliaments, and the UN Secretary-General who will also attend the Summit.

That opening session will be followed by the first session where there will be contributions on the main themes of the Summit which was agreed to between the African and European sides.

There are five main themes:

• Good governance and human rights;
• Peace and security;
• Migration;
• Energy and climate change; and
• Trade, infrastructure and development.

There will be contributions by various heads of government and state on these various themes.

This will be followed by a lunch and the second plenary session where the interventions from both sides on these five themes will continue.  There will be banquet hosted by Portugal that evening.

The third plenary session will be held on Sunday 9 December 2007 where apart from further contributions on these five themes, Heads of State and Government will also receive reports from events being hosted on the fringes of the Summit: EU-Africa business relations, EU-Africa Trade Unions meeting, EU-Africa Youth Meeting and an EU-Africa Civil Society meeting.

Heads of State and Government will then adopt the documents – the main one being the EU-Africa Strategy.  This will be followed by a closing session during which addresses will be made by Portugal, the AU, and so on.  A joint press conference will conclude the proceedings.

Those are the logistics.

Perhaps I can on the issue of attendance say: a confirmed delegation list is still not available.  We can however safely assume that all the EU and AU member states will be represented although not all delegations will be led by Heads of State or Government.  Many delegations will be led by Foreign Ministers but this is not unusual.  It is quite rare that all delegations at any AU or EU Summit will be led by Heads of State or Government.

I do not have to tell you that Africa and Europe are bound together by history, culture, geography, a common future and the community of values – issues like human rights, equality, solidarity, justice, rule of law – there is a common cause between Africa and Europe on these issues.

This Summit, the first one since the inaugural Africa – EU Summit in Cairo in 2000, comes in the wake of considerable change on both continents – democratisation and reform processes have been launched and are being deepened in Africa and Europe.  At the same time, integration processes are important – both continents have accelerated these processes since 2000.  On one hand the OAU has been transformed into the AU with its socio-economic programme NEPAD and other mechanisms created.  The EU has nearly doubled in size and is also in the process of deepening its Union.

Furthermore, the world has changed during this period.  New international global challenges have emerged – it is interesting, if you look at the substance of the Cairo Summit, the issue of climate change and global warming did not even feature on the agenda.  Globalisation has accelerated and the world has become an increasingly inter-dependent place.  It was therefore felt that the time has come again for Europe and Africa to talk.

The European Union has expressed its willingness to work towards a successful Summit in Lisbon that clearly reflects the ambition and the maturity of the relationship between the two continents.

We are committed from the African side to ensure this Summit succeeds.  It is time for the two continents to forge a new and stronger partnership that builds on the new identities and institutions and that capitalise on the lessons of the past, provides a solid framework for a long term and systematic integration co-operation and partnership.

I think both sides feel that there is a need for a new phase in the Africa – EU relationship – a new strategic partnership, a more meaningful one and off course, the joint EU-Africa Summit that will be adopted in Lisbon will serve as political vision and a roadmap for the future co-operation between the two continents and the challenging world in which we now live.

Let me say something about the EU – Africa Joint Strategy: this is a very important document, a very important process and we trust that this document that will be adopted will take the Africa – EU relationship to a new strategic level with strengthened political partnership and enhanced co-operation at all levels.  This Joint Strategy will provide an over-arching, long term framework for Africa – EU relations and this will be implemented through a number of successive short-term action plans and enhanced political dialogue at all levels resulting in concrete and measurable outcomes in all areas of the partnership.

Basically there are four main objectives to this partnership:

• Reinforce and elevate the Africa – EU political partnership to increasingly address issues of common concern, strengthening of institutional ties and addressing common challenges including peace and security, migration, development and climate change;
• To strengthen and promote peace and security, democratic governance, human rights, fundamental freedoms including industrialisation and regional and continental integration in Africa – that is a very important area – the promotion of the MDGs fall within this context;
• To jointly promote and sustain a system of effective multilateralism with strong, representative and legitimate institutions – reform of the UN system, international financial architecture and to jointly address global challenges and common concerns including human rights, gender equality, fair trade, HIV and Aids, arms trafficking, knowledge based society and a host of other issues;
• To facilitate and promote a broad based and wide ranging people centred partnership.  Africa and the EU will try and empower non-state actors to enable them to play an active role in development and democracy building, conflict prevention, etc.

These are the four broad and over-arching objectives of this Summit and it is necessary because the scope of Africa’s relations with the EU has deepened significantly both in terms of political consultations, economic ties, development co-operation and therefore, as I said, it is time for Africa and Europe to talk in a meaningful and constructive manner.

The key objective for Africa is that this new partnership between Africa and Europe should make a tangible impact towards the reduction and the eventual eradication of poverty in Africa.  This objective entails support for sustainable economic, social and environmental development, promotion of the gradual integration of the developing countries into the world economy and sharing its own (and Europe has a lot of experience) experience in terms of economic development and regional integration.

So the key focus must be on creating the necessary economic environment for development on the Continent.  It is very important that, in order for this partnership to grow, the four key pillars of this strategy must be accompanied by concrete and tangible action to be agreed upon at the Summit.  In the context of this Strategy, concrete progress must be made under these four pillars.

The four pillars of this strategy which more or less corresponds with the agenda of the Summit:

• Peace and security;
• Good governance and human rights;
• Trade and regional integration; and
• Development issues with includes issues pertaining, amongst others, to the MDGs, gender equality, human and social development.

In the preparation for this Summit and the discussions on the joint EU-Africa Strategy South Africa played an important role in this process – not just as the Chef de File or Co-ordinator for the Trade and Regional Integration Sector but we were also a member of the AU – EU Experts Working Group on the Joint Strategy so we were directly involved in this process, in preparing and discussing the content of the EU-Africa Strategy and finalising it in the run-up to the Summit.

We were also part of the preparing the first Joint Action Plan which will be adopted at the Summit in Lisbon.  It is a joint action plan that has to implement the first phase of the joint EU-Africa Strategy.  What is important and I think South Africa’s position in this regard has been, that in order to effectively implement this Africa – EU partnership the issue of financing of this strategy/action plan is very important and these issues will be further discussed in Lisbon.

There must be an effective implementation of this and mechanisms to encourage this and the importance of follow up actions to ensure that this is not just a talk shop.  This document must be effectively implemented, monitored and measured. 

In that regard, the EU and Africa has agreed that it will implement this Strategy and the broader Strategic Partnership that is evolving between Africa and Europe through an enhanced institutional architecture which allows and promotes intensive exchanges and dialogue on all issues of common concern. 

It will also be decided in Lisbon that in order to ensure the implementation, effective and smooth running of the Africa Strategy and this broader partnership that meetings of Heads of State and Government will be organised every 2-3 years.  This will be built into the outcome of this Summit alternating between Africa and the EU.  These Summits will always be prepared by Ministerial level interactions.

The political momentum and visibility of this new partnership will also require political engagement of the leaders of Africa and the EU between Summits and to this end the Presidents of the EU Council and the AU, the European Parliament, the Pan African Parliament and the European and AU Commissions will regularly meet in the interim periods. 

What comes out of this is that there is an enhanced political dialogue, a stepped up political dialogue and there is a strong commitment on both sides to give effect to this.  In the period between the Summits, it has been agreed that the dialogue between Africa and the EU should be maintained through regular meetings and I mentioned on ministerial level.  These meetings will be held on a Troika format whereby each side is represented by a smaller number of delegates who are mandated to speak about Africa and the EU respectively.  On the EU side the Troika consists of the current and incoming Presidency, the European Commission, the EU Council Secretariat.  On the African side, the Troika consists of the current and outgoing Presidencies of the AU and the AU Commission.  These annual Africa – EU Ministerial Troika meetings will occupy a central role in implementing whatever comes out of the Lisbon Summit. 

It was also agreed that there would be ongoing contact between the European and African Parliaments and also between the EU economic and social committee, ECOSOC on the AU side.  They will encourage civil society to interact – these are all features of an increased political dialogue between the two continents.

What I am saying is that the adoption of this Africa – EU Strategy is the key of this Summit and will give practical content to this relationship between the EU and Africa.

To summarise: seven years have passed since the first Summit and many important changes have taken place and both the EU and African Union on the two continents continue to play a more important political and economic roles and have greater political and economic responsibilities on a world stage.  I think there is no doubt that there is an increased strategic importance of Africa unfolding.  Africa has assumed a new strategic importance in the eyes of the West and in terms of the EU, I think it is important that we have this meeting and it has become urgent that we talk, as the two continents.  We trust that as Africa, we will come away from the Summit with, not only a common vision, but also a practical plan of action for co-operation between Africa and Europe.

DEPUTY PRESIDENT TO LEAD DELEGATION TO INAUGURATION OF ARGENTINIAN PRESIDENT

As you are aware, Argentina recently held Presidential elections and Cristina Kirchner ran for office and was elected with a comfortable majority and the inauguration of Cristina Kirchner as the first elected female President of Argentina will be held on Monday 10 December 2007 in Buenos Aires.

The South African delegation to the inauguration will be led by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.  It will be a very quick visit.

It will be a ceremonial event attended by Heads of State and Government from all over the world and particularly from South America.

Questions and answers

Question Ambassador, the issue of Zimbabwe is still floating around.  There have been some statements by SADC and other African countries that they do not want this on the agenda.  Is there an agreement on the African side that this is so?

Answer Well, as I tried to indicate, there were various meetings between the two sides in the run up to the preparatory meeting of tomorrow and the Summit itself.  An agenda has been agreed to.  I have mentioned the agenda points and the main themes in the agenda and as far as Africa is concerned, that is the agenda that has been agreed upon and this will serve as the agenda for the meeting.

South Africa and Africa would want this Summit to focus on the substance of expanding the Strategic Partnership between Africa and Europe.  That must be the key focus.  It is on this issue that we want positive and tangible outcomes and as far as we are concerned, this is the main focus.

I mentioned that one of the themes would be governance and human rights and I don’t think Africa can stop Europe if they choose to raise the issue of Zimbabwe under this theme.  We have no confirmation that this will be done albeit there are many rumours.  As far as we are concerned, Zimbabwe is not part of the agenda.  We have an agenda and we would like to stick to this agreed agenda.

Question Ambassador, the agreement between the ACP countries and the EU will expire on 31 December 2007.  Will South Africa review this agreement?

Answer This is an issue that will obviously come up for discussion probably within the context of the trade, development and infrastructure discussion.  That process in an ongoing one.  You know that the EU has been negotiating with a number of regional communities in Africa – ECOWAS, East, SADC – with a view to reaching the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).  In the case of South Africa, our position is that we were opposed to the inclusion of (and I’m over simplifying now) goods and services in the EPAs as the EU wanted.  South Africa objected to this because the impact of making significant concessions by Africa on these issues would be detrimental to Africa and certainly to SADC.

But this process is underway, what has happened very recently that there was a decision taken because of the fact that the current dispensation in the ACP context will expire on 31 st December because the waiver that was granted by the WTO will expire – it was hoped that a new dispensation would have come into effect on 1 January 2008.

As I said, we ran into problems on the goods and services, on some of the trade issues, and it was then agreed that an interim EPA would be signed and it was signed about a week ago in the South.  Only four countries in the South – Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique signed.  South Africa did not sign this agreement.  Namibia was still contemplating signing this.

This is an interim EPA that did not include trade and services – just trade and goods.

This process is therefore ongoing and some solution will have to be found on how to move forward.  This is a very complex issue.

Question Ambassador is President Mbeki speaking at the Summit?

Answer The President will make an intervention – I am not entirely sure when but I am sure he will make an intervention.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
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5 December 2007