EU-Africa summit shines spotlight on the ‘forgotten continent’

Date: 30/03/2000

After much diplomatic manoeuvring by the Portuguese presidency, the first-ever summit between Union and African leaders will take place next week. But there are fears that it will amount to little more than a talking shop. Gareth Harding reports

PORTUGUESE officials will breathe a huge sigh of relief when EU and African leaders line up for their group photo at the first-ever summit between the two sides, because only a month ago the Cairo meeting looked destined for oblivion.

Nimble-footed diplomatic man-oeuvring eventually succeeded in salvaging one of the flagship events of Portugual's Union presidency, but the last-minute reprieve has left little time to prepare for next week's get-together.

"All practical arrangements that would have normally been made over three months have been compressed into three weeks," said one official, while the logistical nightmare of freeing up the agendas of almost 70 heads of state has resulted in many sleepless nights for the conference's organisers.

The idea of holding a summit between the two blocs was first proposed by Lisbon in 1996 and was given the green light by EU foreign ministers a year later. But arguments over who should be invited to the gathering threatened to derail the process until a breakthrough was made last month.

The Union insisted that all African countries should be given a seat at the table. But Morocco said it would not show up if Western Sahara was invited. Rabat invaded its phosphate-rich southern neighbour in 1976, and left the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) after it recognised the occupied desert state.

To the untrained European eye, the spat might have seemed trivial, but when Portugal took over the rotating presidency of the EU at the start of this year it rated the chances of the summit taking place as so slim that it took the meeting off its official agenda. Eventually, however, the OAU managed to persuade Western Sahara to stay away from the meeting, paving the way for Morocco's full participation.

The programme for the conference has now been agreed after lengthy talks between the two sides. On Sunday (2 April), foreign ministers will meet to make final preparations for the summit and thrash out a plan of action. The following day will be dedicated to social and economic issues, such as boosting regional integration and opening up African markets to the rigours of free trade.

Political issues will dominate the full-day session on Tuesday (4 April), with Union governments keen to talk about human rights, conflict prevention, migration and good governance. Development issues will also be high up the agenda with a discussion on how to eradicate poverty on the continent and reconcile growth with environmental protection.

However, agreement on the summit's agenda does not mean the two sides see eye to eye about what they want out of it. An internal paper drawn up by the European Commission says EU member states are all of the same mind that the meeting "should not become a pledging forum" and are keen to focus on political issues such as promoting democracy, regional integration and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. This is not, however, a view shared by African countries, which place more emphasis on development and socio-economic issues.

Another sticking point is the follow-up to the summit. Both sides believe a further meeting should take place and Portugal has already offered to host one in 2003. But there is a disagreement over what structures should be set up to continue the dialogue.

The African side wants similar treatment to Asian countries, which hold summits with the Union every three years and arrange regular ministerial meetings. However, the Commission says it believes that "any follow-up should be results-oriented and make maximum use of existing structures".

The EU already provides its African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners with preferential access to its markets and has recently agreed to free up almost €23 billion in aid for its former colonies, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. The predominantly Muslim states of northern Africa also benefit from €1 billion of Union funds annually through the EuroMed process. "Between the two, Africa gets a pretty good hearing," said one diplomat.

The EU is also involved in Africa in a myriad of other ways. It has peace envoys shuttling back and forth between Brussels and flash-points in the Horn of Africa and the Congo basin to try to put an end to two of the world's bloodiest and most long-running conflicts. It also provides hundreds of millions of euro of aid to stave off humanitarian disasters in countries such as Mozambique and Sudan and billions of euro to the region in development assistance.

But African countries and development groups remain suspicious of the Union's motives in becoming more closely embroiled in the continent's problems. Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose country currently holds the OAU presidency, said recently that Africans would only benefit from the summit if they "prevented Europeans from turning it into their own cause - that is to say trying to sell more and more of their goods".

Simon Stocker, director of Brussels-based development group Eurostep, says African states are quite rightly wary of assuming that signing up to free trade will automatically lead to greater wealth for their people and accuses Union governments of double standards in their trade relations with some of the world's poorest countries. "The EU continues to cling on to protectionist policies in the agricultural field, which is one of the main areas where Africans have a comparative advantage," he argues.

The greatest fear on both sides is that the summit will be nothing more than a talking shop, providing a perfect photo opportunity for Union and African leaders but producing no long-lasting results.

If last year's summit between the EU and Latin America is anything to go by, this fear could prove well-founded. However, diplomats are busy playing up the importance of the Cairo meeting. "The fact the summit is taking place at all sends a positive signal," insisted one, adding that the get-together would also serve to highlight issues such as debt, poverty reduction, conflict prevention and the fight against the spread of AIDS.

The summit certainly promises to live up to its high-level billing.

As well as 67 heads of state, United Nations chief Kofi Annan, Commission President Romano Prodi and OAU Secretary-General General Salem Ahmed Salem will be present for the two-day meeting. External Relations, Trade and Development Commissioners Chris Patten, Pascal Lamy and Poul Nielson will also be jetting in to the Egyptian capital.

If little else, the meeting will shine the media spotlight on what has been described as 'the forgotten continent'. The Commission says the number one aim of the summit is to "raise international awareness of Africa's importance and potential", and Brussels-based diplomats say it will educate Europe about a continent which is often portrayed as nothing but war-torn, poverty-stricken and disease-ridden.

Portugal has already given Africa a high profile during its presidency by devoting an informal meeting of development ministers to relations with the continent, clinching a deal on a new ACP convention and spearheading the Union's swift response to the flooding in Mozambique. France, which takes over the presidency in July, is also expected to boost relations with the EU's northern African neighbours when it hosts a summit of EuroMed heads of state in November.

However, the success or failure of the summit will largely depend on the strength of the action plan being drawn up by the two sides' officials. If this contains nothing but fine-sounding declarations, it will not be worth the paper it is written on, but if it is full of concrete proposals to improve the lot of Africans, the sleepless nights endured by officials will have been worthwhile.

Major feature. After much diplomatic manoevring by the Portuguese Presidency, the first-ever summit between European Union and African leaders will take place on 4.4.00. But there are fears that it will amount to little more than a talking shop.