MEDIA ADVISORY

African Brainstorming on the future of the Africa – EU Dialogue

When 10-13 June 2013

Where Zanzibar, Tanzania

Who African Union Commission (AUC) – The Department of Economic Affairs, coordinator of the Africa-EU partnership will lead the process, in collaboration with the respective AUC Departments.

Why The purpose of the Meeting is to inter alia, assess progress on the implementation of the Africa-EU Partnership, through its successive Action Plans; address bottlenecks; recommend solutions to overcome constraints; and prepare the African side to engage in the forthcoming joint brainstorming.
This brainstorming session at the level of the Africa side will provide a platform for discussions on Africa’s partnership thus far and chart a way forward on future engagements with the EU and implementation of the 3rd Action Plan of the JAES, as well as propose concrete recommendations to strengthen identified area of weakness.

Objective The Brainstorming meeting will be critical for the African side to come up with concrete proposals on the future priorities of the JAES, the coordination and architecture of the Partnership as well as its financing mechanisms and better involve all relevant stakeholders for maximum engagement.

Expected Outcomes Self assessment through a SWOT analysis conducted by each of the eight (8) thematic partnership; Recommendations on how to strengthen the content, focus and delivery of each thematic partnership; Proposals on the following cross cutting issues (Enhancing stakeholders engagement; Restructuring the coordination and implementation architecture; Improving financing and Identifying key priorities for the 3rd Action Plan); and Outcome document of key findings and recommendations.

Format The format of the brainstorming session, which will be more of a working sessions than a formal meeting. The format will be the following:
- Plenary session
- Presentations on: the background of the Africa-EU Partnership; the AUC Strategic Plan 2014-2017 (highlighting areas of key interest of cooperation); critical analysis the Joint Africa –EU Strategy (JAES); and civil society perspective on the JAES.

Participation Participants will include: co-chairs from AU Member States; Follow-up Committee on Africa-EU Dialogue and Chef de fils for each thematic partnership; Focal points from the AUC for each thematic partnership; AU Organs (Panafrican Parliament, African Court of Human and People’s Rights, the African Commission of Human and People’s Right’s, NEPAD Agency and AU Brussels office); Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other stakeholders (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Development Bank and the AUC-ECA-AfDB joint secretariat)

Background
The adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) at the Lisbon Summit in 2007 marked a new beginning and direction for Africa-EU relations. The shift from donor-recipient partnership to a partnership of equals is indeed a step in the right direction.

The purpose of the Joint Strategy was to take the EU-Africa partnership to a new, strategic level with a strengthened political partnership and enhanced cooperation at all levels. The partnership was based on a Euro-African consensus on values, common interests and common strategic objectives. The partnership should strive to bridge the development divide between Africa and Europe through the promotion of sustainable development in both continents, living side by side in peace, security, prosperity, solidarity and dignity.

The Strategy puts Africa-EU relations on a new footing, based on the pursuit of shared values, common interests and strategic objectives. Both sides are determined to overcome the traditional donor-recipient relationship, instead wanting to strengthen their strategic cooperation as equal partners. Both continents have a shared long-term vision for EU-Africa relations in a globalized world, where they play a major role on themes such as climate change and global security.

The Africa-EU partnership is guided by the following fundamental principles:
• Unity of Africa,
• The interdependence between Africa and Europe,
• Ownership and joint responsibility, and
• Respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as the right to development.

Based on the key principles of partnership, the JAES seeks to expand dialogue and cooperation into promising innovative areas, developing mutually beneficial opportunities and promoting the shared interests of Africa and the EU on the international stage.

The four objectives of the Partnership are:
1. To reinforce and elevate the Africa-EU political partnership to address issues of common concern e.g. migration;
2. Support Africa in pursuit of its priorities such as integration, MDGs, peace and security;
3. Jointly promote a system of effective multilateralism and to address global challenges and common concerns;
4. Facilitate and promote broad-based and wide-ranging people-centered partnership.

The four main objectives of this long-term partnership set the comprehensive framework towards which specific strategies will have to be put in place in the following areas:
1. Peace and security,
2. Governance and human rights,
3. Trade and regional integration and
4. Key development issues.

The Joint Strategy focuses on moving:
 Beyond development cooperation, by opening up the Africa-EU dialogue and cooperation to issues of joint concern and interest;
 Beyond Africa by moving away from the traditional focus on purely African development matters, towards effectively addressing global challenges;
 Beyond fragmentation, in supporting Africa’s aspirations to find trans-regional and continental responses to some of the most important challenges;
 Beyond institutions, in working towards a people-centred partnership, ensuring better participation of African and European citizens.

The Joint Strategy, which provided an overarching long-term framework for EU-Africa relations, is implemented through successive short-term Action Plans and was supposed to enhance political dialogue at all levels, resulting in concrete and measurable outcomes in all areas of the partnership, including peace and security, governance and human rights, trade and regional integration, and other key development issues.

The first Action Plan having been adopted at the Lisbon Summit and was implemented during a three year period (2008-2010). In November 2010, Heads of State and Government of the two sides met in Tripoli, Libya in November 2010 where the second Action Plan 2011-2013 was adopted. Among the key criteria for JAES activities are regional, continental and global dimensions and respect for the principles of subsidiarity. The second Action Plan has maintained the eight (8) thematic partnerships of the 1st Action Plan, namely:
1. Peace and Security
2. Governance and Human Rights
3. Trade, Regional integration and Infrastructure
4. MDGS
5. Energy
6. Climate change
7. Migration, Mobility and employment
8. Science, Information society and space

In order to enable the JAES to be functional and performing, the decision making, Implementation and follow-up structures for the Africa-EU Dialogue are as following:
 Troika Experts and Senior Officials Meeting
 Ministerial Troika Level
 Two Sub-Committees: Follow-up Committee on the Africa-EU Dialogue; and Multilateral Cooperation Sub-Committee. Both sub-Committees report to the PRC.
 Chefs de files (led by a Member State)
 Joint Expert Groups (led by a Member State and supported by a focal Departments within the AUC)
 Joint Task Force
 AUC-EC Commission-to-Commission meeting.

The program of the event is attached –
Further information on AU Web Site: www.au.int

Contacts
For more information contact the following officers at the AUC:

Mr. Fliss Liwaadine – Coordinator of the Africa-EU Dialogue
LIWAEDDINEF@africa-union.org

Mrs. Victoria Egbetayo – Coordinator of the Africa-EU Dialogue
egbetayov@africa-union.org

Ms. Mwila Kamwela – Coordinator JAES Support Mechanism (Africa Side)
kamwelam@africa-union.org

The African Union Information and Communication Directorate (DIC)
PO Box 3243
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 77 00 Ext. 2558 / +251 11 518 2558
Fax: +251 11 5 18 2578
E-mail: habibam@africa-union.org
Web: www.africa-union.org