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EU-Africa Summit focuses on people, prosperity and peace
People, prosperity and peace are the three main areas world leaders or their representatives at the ongoing 4th EU-Africa summit in Brussels, Belgium are focusing on, as they seek closer cooperation between the two continents.
With the theme “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace”, leaders attending the summit have already expressed optimism at the outcome of the summit, which comes after similar ones held in Cairo in 2000, Lisbon in 2007 and Libya in 2010.
Both African and European leaders say they are committed to growing human capital through education and training, creating additional incentives for investment, and to finding ways of stimulating growth that would create jobs for the youth in particular.
European Council and Commission comments
Before the summit got underway, Mr Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council (EC), said “Both Africa and the European Union will come together to address the challenges that each of our continent faces and the ones that face the world as a whole.
“The theme we have chosen addresses the everyday concerns of our citizens – their safety and security, their job prospects, and their future as families and individuals. I am looking forward to a summit that will further reinforce our partnership and contribute to improve the quality of hope of our population.”
Also commenting before the meeting, Mr José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said “Fulfilling the vision set out in the joint Africa-EU Strategy, the summit will deepen our
partnership of equals and seize further cooperation opportunities by expanding political, economic investment and trade ties. This includes the pursuit of durable and sustainable economic growth generating jobs for all our citizens.
The summit
The summit is intended to illustrate how European Union (EU) – Africa relations have evolved over the years and highlight the results achieved by the Continental Partnership, as well as chart the way forward in further cooperation.
It would also enable stocktaking of ongoing and future cooperation in the various fields covered by the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) and look into ways to enable more effective and streamlined implementation.
Discussing issues such as climate change and the post 2015 development frameworks, the summit is also expected to adopt a political declaration to cover all topics pertaining to EU-Africa relations.
It is also anticipated that an implementing document would be adopted to shape continental cooperation taking place in the JAES for the next three years and other documents considered important endorsed.
Reason for theme
According to a press release issued by the General Secretariat of the European Council, the summit theme was chosen to reflect the fact that people are at the centre of the EU-Africa partnership and leaders need to discuss how to foster human capital through education and training, including women and youth so they are better qualified for the labour market.
The statement also noted that prosperity was key for both continents, and that they needed sustainable and inclusive growth to ensure their socio-economic development and make firm the recovery from the economic and financial crisis.
Touching on peace, the statement indicated that cooperation among the two continents had shown significant results in a number of regions such as the Horn of Africa and the Sahel and that the summit would look at ways to increase support for Africa to manage its security through enhanced capacity building.
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