EU Presidency Statement - NEPAD

Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Acceding Countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, and the Associated Countries Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey, align themselves with this statement.

The EU sees today's debate as a great opportunity to focus the attention of the 58th General Assembly on African issues. We wish to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to the social and economic development of Africa, which remains, to use the words of the EU Council of Ministers, our "privileged partner."

As we are all aware, peace and development are closely related, especially in the case of Africa. We welcome this year's new approach of addressing both issues under a single agenda item centred on NEPAD, which has been adopted by African Heads of State as the development programme of the African Union. We also welcome the Secretary-General's reports prepared under the supervision of the Office of the Special Adviser for Africa, whose conclusions and recommendations we fully share and whose implementation we are ready to support. In particular, we commend the quality of the NEPAD report outlining challenges and constraints facing the African countries, the international community and the United Nations system.

Mr. Chairman,

The European Union has supported the NEPAD initiative from the beginning. We share the vision on which it is grounded, according to which Africa's development - considered as vital to Africans as to the entire world - must be framed in a partnership between the more developed countries and the African countries, where the latter have the primary responsibility in establishing the conditions for sustainable economic and social development and attracting private investments. Those conditions include improving governance, fighting corruption, and enhancing transparency and the rule of law. NEPAD also rightly emphasises the private sector`s role in Africa as a means to help fully integrate the continent into the process of economic globalisation.

I wish to reiterate the EU's full support for the basic principles and political priorities addressed by NEPAD, which coincide with the values and objectives of the EU external relations policy. The sectoral and thematic priorities of NEPAD are the same as those defined in the 2000 Cairo Action Plan adopted within the Europe- Africa dialogue. We believe that the AU decision on the integration of NEPAD into the African Union will allow us to reinforce our dialogue with Africa on a broad scope of issues. We look forward to further deepening this dialogue at the first meeting of the Forum for Partnership with Africa organised by France on November 10.

In this regard, we applaud the progress made by African countries in implementing NEPAD, particularly the establishment of the African Peer Review Mechanism. We hope that other African countries will join the sixteen States that have acceded to it as of today, and we encourage them to start applying the mechanism, as planned, by the end of the year. Drawing on the recommendations contained in the Secretary General`s report, further efforts are also needed to integrate NEPAD goals and priorities into national, sub-regional and continental development plans; foster cooperation between the NEPAD Implementation Committee and the regional economic communities; generate popular support for NEPAD among the African people and mobilise domestic resources. In this context, the EU would also like to underline the importance of a gender perspective.

Mr. Chairman,

The resolve of the African countries will have to be matched by the commitment of the more developed countries to support Africa - in a spirit of genuine partnership - by substantially enhancing the flow of resources to the continent and their effectiveness.

I would like to recall the collective EU financial commitment, which was defined in the context of the preparations for the Monterrey Conference at the European Council of Barcelona in March 2002: namely, to bring ODA to 0.39% of the GNI by 2006 as a first significant step toward the UN goal of 0.7%. The EU and its Member States are respecting this schedule and are already providing almost half of all current development assistance to Africa.

The EU and its member states have been at the forefront of the international community's cooperation with Africa in many areas. Given the establishment of NEPAD and the developments occurred within the AU, the European Union faces now a new challenge: how to best integrate the pan-african dimension into its cooperation programmes.

The tragic toll of victims of diseases, notably HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria require a swift global response. The EU has increased funds to combat these diseases through additional aid to national and regional programmes, UN agencies, funds and programmes, and other multilateral channels. To the Global Fund alone, the EU contribution accounts for 55% of all resources pledged, while the EU and its Member States provide 65% of world assistance for health and population in developing countries.

Access to medicine is also of vital importance. The EU is determined to promote every possible option for improving the availability of drugs to combat poverty and disease. We therefore welcome the recent WTO agreement on the implementation of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health.

As far as debt issues are concerned, I would like to recall the important recent decisions by the ACP-EU Council of Ministers to alleviate the debt burden of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States. It was decided to use 335 million Euros from the long-term development envelope to reduce the debt of ACP countries eligible under the HIPC initiative. An additional allocation of 105 million Euros was also made in favour of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our objective remains to ensure that, within the HIPC initiative, the eligible countries can reach and maintain a sustainable level of debt in the long term, thus reinforcing their efforts to reduce poverty and promote growth. The EU is also examining ways of going beyond the current HIPC initiative.

Regarding trade, we are convinced that Africa deserves full support from the international community because of its specific needs and constraints. This is why the European Commission made a proposal for Africa at the G8 Summit in Evian. It has three components: enhanced market access for sub-Saharan African Countries not part of a free trade area, a moratorium on all forms of export subsidisation applied to exports to sub-Saharan Africa, and market-based insurance mechanisms against commodity shocks. At a multilateral level, in the context of the Doha Development Agenda, the EU has proposed that all developed countries and the most advanced developing countries grant duty- and quota-free access to products of Least-Developed Countries, most of which are Sub-Saharan countries. The EU has also proposed the elimination of export subsidies on a list of agricultural products of export interest to developing countries, notably African countries.

The EU recognises the importance of cotton for the development of a number of African countries and understands the need for urgent action to address trade distortion in this market. In response to the cotton initiative in the WTO, the European Commission, for the EU, has proposed a constructive solution to address the trade aspects linked to the depressed prices of cotton in the world market. It had been proposed to bind that solution in the WTO but this is clearly postponed until a Round is successfully concluded.

Negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements were launched earlier this month with CEMAC and ECOWAS. The EU sees these agreements above all as development tools to promote greater inter-African trade and stronger trade links between Africa and Europe.

The EU also recognises the important need to strengthen the African supply-side and trading capacities, and is committed to giving this domain greater importance in its development response strategies. NEPAD can also play an important role in helping individual countries develop their regulatory, legal, judicial and institutional capacity and in mainstreaming trade into the development policies and poverty reduction strategies. The EU Member States and the European Commission have developed financial instruments in this regard, and work with African partners to strengthen their competitiveness. The European Commission alone has earmarked more than € 300 million in support of regional integration and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa for the next two years.

The EU expresses its deep regret over the failure of the Cancun Conference. We remain convinced that a growing liberalisation of world trade, together with development co-operation activities, can play a crucial role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. This is why the EU feels that it is important to continue the negotiations in the WTO framework as soon as all the parties are ready to participate again. All should demonstrate the determination and flexibility needed to honour the commitments enshrined in the Doha Development Agenda.

Mr. Chairman,

Today's meeting is also devoted to the promotion of lasting peace in Africa. Indeed, this is the first goal of the NEPAD Initiative, which rightly links development and stability. Our main focus must be on the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts in Africa. According to the EU-established position, our contribution to conflict prevention and management is to be made through the strengthening of African capacities, including support for regional and sub-regional organisations and civil society.

There have been important developments in this area. At its Durban Summit in July 2002, the African Union endorsed the Protocol for the establishment of the AU Peace and Security Council, which will be the ruling organ of an African Peace and Security Mechanism, including an African stand-by Force. We hope that the number of ratifications required for the protocol to enter into force can soon be reached.

In the meantime, at the African Union Summit in Maputo last July, the European Commission made an innovative proposal: to establish an African "Peace Support Operation Facility" in support of African peace operations, including the upcoming AU Peace and Security Mechanism. This proposal is currently being developed in Brussels; it recognizes that there is no development without peace and aims to enlarge the range of aid intervention to include support for African-run peacekeeping operations.

We expect other donors to contribute to the establishment of the African Peace and Security Mechanism, following the adoption at the G8 Summit in Evian of a Joint Plan for strengthening the African capacities to undertake peace support operations. This plan sets forth the ambitious goal of helping African Countries to create, by 2010, a stand-by peace force capable of conducting peacekeeping operations and consistent with the African ownership of peace and security issues.

The creation of an African stand-by force will deter conflicts on the continent and supplement strong and effective co-operation between the United Nations, the European Union and the African Union. This trilateral cooperation must encompass both conflict prevention and aid. This was one of the main conclusions of the seminar that the EU Presidency organised in Rome, July 28-29, on Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution in Africa, which was attended by UN Special Advisor on Africa, Prof. Gambari, among others, and also by qualified representatives of the African civil society, to whose role we ascribe a great importance.

The lessons learned from past experience prove that when the EU, the UN and African countries act in a coherent and consistent manner, they can make a significant impact on peace, development and security. The most recent example was the EU-led "Operation Artemis" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The EU-UN co-operation agreement on crises management, signed in New York two weeks ago will create further opportunities to demonstrate the EU's commitment.

The EU has much to offer Africa in terms of building capacity in conflict prevention, management and resolution - including peacekeeping and cross-cutting issues, such as control on small arms and light weapons. While financial resources form the central pillar, there is also an important technical capacity-building and skills transfer that the EU can offer. We intend to foster discussion with our African partners on this sensitive issue within the framework of the ongoing Europe-Africa Dialogue established at the Cairo Summit in April 2000. As was confirmed at the Ouagadougou ministerial conference in November last year, Europe wishes to make the strategic framework provided by NEPAD and the AU, the heart of its political dialogue with Africa.

Mr. Chairman,

Ensuring Africa's inclusion in world advancement is an EU priority. We are confident that this challenge can be achieved through continuing progress in the implementation of NEPAD and increasing support from the international community. While the EU will pursue this objective in the framework of its ongoing dialogue with Africa, we also expect the UN to play an important role in fostering the partnership between the developed world and the African continent. I wish to pledge the EU's full support to initiatives undertaken in this respect and I wish the Special Advisor for Africa, Prof. Gambari, every success in his important role.

Thank you.

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• EU Presidency Statement - NEPAD (25/9/2002)
• European Commission Statement on NEPAD (16/9/2002)
• EU Presidency Statement - NEPAD (16/9/2002)