PANEL III
EU-AFRICA: COMMON CHALLENGES AND A SHARED VISION
Europe and Africa, two neighbouring continents, are connected through history and global
responsibility, particularly their shared responsibility for the new challenges facing the world which
dictate the need for even closer cooperation. The 10th anniversary of the 2nd Africa-EU Summit in
Lisbon and of the adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, the Action Plan and the Lisbon Strategy is
a perfect opportunity for taking further steps ahead.
During the last decades, both continents have undergone significant changes leading to closer
cooperation. With the enlargement of the EU, the single European economic area has expanded by
more than a half. Similarly, an upward trend has been observed in Africa with regard to regional and
continental cooperation.
Significant changes have also occurred in development cooperation. The gap between the rich north
and the poor south is slowly narrowing, and the world is increasingly being divided into the rich and
the poor in the north and in the south. In the last three years, four important international
conferences took place dealing with major global challenges: UN Sustainable Development Summit
in New York, Paris Climate Change Conference, 1st High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for
Effective Development Co-operation in Mexico City and Third International Conference on Financing
for Development in Addis Ababa. At all those events the participating states made very ambitious
commitments. The question now is how to honour these commitments and how to attain the goals
set.
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The EU and Africa face similar challenges: How to fulfil the commitments made and how to
attain the goals set? What progress has been made, what are the priority tasks on both
continents and what hinders the fulfilment of commitments?
At the UN Sustainable Development Summit, the world leaders adopted the Agenda for Sustainable
Development by 2030. The Agenda defines the new approach of the international community to
development, and its key feature is universality. Taking into account particular national
circumstances, the Agenda goals will be pursued by all world countries, not only by developing
countries as was the case with the Millennium Development Goals. The guiding principle of the goals
is to "leave no one behind". The broad scope of the Agenda is captured by the 'five Ps' – people,
planet, prosperity, peace and partnership –, and it has set 17 indivisible Sustainable Development
Goals and 169 targets. To attain these goals, public and political support will be needed both in
European and African countries. The direct effects of the climate change, poverty, famine, growing
migration flows and security threats require fast and effective solutions, and efficient cooperation
between the two continents is therefore of utmost importance.
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How to form an effective partnership between the European Union, the African Union and
the UN in order to rise up to the challenges which can be anticipated in the coming decades?
The Cotonou Agreement, which provided the foundations for partner cooperation between the
European Union and the group of 79 ACP countries, will expire in 2020. The debate on the regulation
of partner relations between the EU and the ACP countries after 2020 has already started and will be
intensified in 2018 with the opening of the negotiations on the future partner relations between the
EU and ACP regions.
In 2017, the international community is devoting a great deal of attention to Africa. In addition to
the G7 and G20 summits in May and June, respectively, Ivory Coast will host the 5th EU-Africa
Summit in November, which will provide an excellent opportunity to draft the orientations of future
cooperation and closer political and economic partnership between the two continents.
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How can Africa and Europe shape their future cooperation, which will be not only mutually
acceptable, but will above all bring benefits to the people on both continents?