EU Commission and Commission of AU meet in Addis Ababa

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The European Commission and the Commission of the African Union will meet for a joint working session at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 2 October 2006. This meeting, the third joint session in three years time, is the latest testimony of an ever growing partnership between the two continental executive bodies. For this occasion, the European Commission will hold its first ever meeting on another continent than Europe, travelling to Ethiopia with no less than 10 Commissioners including President José Manuel Barroso, all three vice-Presidents Margot Wallström (Communication), Franco Frattini (Justice, Freedom and Security) and Siim Kallas (Administration), the Commissioners Louis Michel (Development and Humanitarian Aid), Peter Mandelson (Trade), Dalia Grybauskaité (Budget), Janez Potocnik (Research), Markos Kyprianou (Health), Laszlo Kovács (Taxation), Vladimir Spidla (Employment and Social Affairs) and Andris Piebalgs (Energy).

The agenda of the meeting focuses on institutional partnership and development. Almost one year after the adoption of the EU Strategy for Africa¹, both sides will review the progress in its implementation and decide on new steps to take. They will look at the implementation of the EU-Africa Partnership on Infrastructure. They will discuss how to manage better migration flows for the benefit of both continents. Through a series of "Commissioner to Commissioner" meetings, they will exchange experience when it comes to their respective areas of responsibility, such as employment, science and technology or health.

The European and African Union Commission will also strengthen their institutional ties. Both institutions will agree on a first large support programme of €55 million for the African Union's operational and institutional development, to be implemented as from 1 January 2007, and a Memorandum of Understanding to structure the exchange of officials and trainees between the two institutions.

The European Union has been supportive of the African Union (AU) and underpinned its political commitment with financial support in key areas. As such, the European Commission set up an innovative African Peace Facility (APF) to support African peace keeping operations and supported a number of concrete projects in relation to thematic AU priorities such as institutional capacity building, governance, peace building and conflict prevention. At the same time, the AU gained more credibility both within and outside Africa revamping Africa's quest for a more integrated continent. It adopted a Strategic Plan giving the organization a long term mission and roadmap for the first AU Commission (2004-2007) led by Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konaré.

Through this Support Programme, two general objectives are pursued: to enable the AU Commission to effectively play its role as "motor" of the integration process and to facilitate the deepening of the partnership between the AU and the EU. To fulfill these objectives, the four pillars of the AU Strategic Plan 2004-2007 will be supported: Institutional strengthening of the AU Commission (e.g. modernizing financing and accounting systems, modernization of information systems, knowledge management); peace, human security, governance; regional integration (also deals with sectoral issues, most notably infrastructure, migration, and science and technology); and enhancing concrete EU-AU cooperation. As such it includes support to twinning partnerships, the initiation of the Nyerere programme for student exchange and developing the information and communication capacities of the AU Commission.

More info:

The EC-AUC meeting:
http://www.africa-union.org/root/AU/Conferences/Past/2006/October/EU-AU/AU-EU-meeting-fr.htm

The EU Strategy for Africa:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/development/body/communications/eu_africa_strategy_en.htm

¹ The EU Strategy for Africa was adopted by the European Council in December 2005. Find the contents in the above mentioned internet website.

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