EXPANDING AFRICAN-EUROPEAN RELATIONS
By Aliyu Othman

 

The third Africa-EU Summit held recently in Tripoli , Libya , focused on the role of Africa and the European Union in the realization of the development objectives of African nations and the desire for more partnership from the European Union members.

The forum with the theme: Investment, Economic Growth and Job Creation , no doubt identified the needs of the two blocs for the improvement of bilateral relations in the areas of regional integration, infrastructure, energy, ICT, science and technology as well as private sector interventions.

Other intervention areas include climate change, agriculture, food security, the Millennium Development Goals, migration, peace and security.

Discussions during the two-day summit provided a platform for the over eighty member nations' delegations to harmonize areas of mutual benefits to be pursued through dialogue, partnership, investments and the principle of give-and-take as equal partners.

As argued by analysts, Europe has more to gain from the partnership than Africa, and this is based on the existing trade imbalance and the opportunities that abound in Africa for increased investments and markets. 

The Africa-EU summit adopted new measures towards addressing the known problems of Africa based on the continent's desire to achieve certain levels of development that will continue to be based on partnership and the European nations' desire to protect their investments through guaranteed security as well as support Africa 's development objectives.

Participants indeed reached some understanding on the way forward by adopting an integrated approach in the areas of climate change, MDG implementation strategy, security and the funding of strategic intervention projects by some European nations to interested African countries that show clear commitments to the realization of specific development targets.

It is also interesting to note that the Tripoli summit provided another opportunity for African countries to collaborate towards improving trade and investments between them thereby promoting increased partnership at the continental level.

On the sidelines of the summit, African countries also held bilateral talks with some selected European nations aimed at increasing investments in the areas of infrastructure and support system for the mutual benefits of member nations.

Nigeria , as a leading partner in the Africa-EU summit, used the platform to further improve bilateral relations with its strategic partners in Africa and Europe towards the realization of the nation's infrastructural development, power generation and markets for its petroleum and other products across the world.

The second Action Plan after the Lisbon 2007 plan of action adopted by the summit centred on ways to achieve the set aspirations of member countries to realise the goals of food security, climate change, agriculture, renewable sources of energy and contribute to energy security for a safer world.

The Tripoli declaration also identified the achievement of economic growth and job creation as the key aspirations of members that can be attained through enhanced cooperation for sustainable democracy and the rule of law in the next three years and beyond.

These efforts must not only be strengthened but must also be fast-tracked to achieve a safer world where the current and future generations can live in peace as against social and political unrest that have characterized many countries in Africa.

The African and EU leaders should also act fast to implement the agreed terms based on the plan of action in order to change things in the shortest possible time to ensure that in the next three years when members are expected to gather in Brussels to review progress, meaningful and concrete progress should have been recorded.

The two-day summit identified not only where members currently are, and where they intend to be in the next three years, but also came up with measures that will make the partnership work to meet the future development needs of the member-nations.

The reasons why past attempts at forging effective relations had not worked must be addressed and adopt a new paradigm that will make the African nations and EU member-countries stronger.

Formal structures for dialogue using the existing institutions representing the people and government of the two continents also need to be established.

The Africa-EU platform should be made to work in areas of trade, investment, joint project implementation and the efforts of the private sector and civil society groups harnessed towards the realization of the strategic partnership development objectives. 

 

 

Broadcast on Saturday December 11, 2010