Commission bids to extend co-operation with Africa

The European Commission will next week propose a plan for developing a new relationship with Africa which will focus on energy, climate change, migration and promoting democratic rule.

In response to European fears over Chinese overtures to Africa, an EU-African Union partnership on energy would strengthen dialogue on access to energy and increase investment on energy infrastructure. Better ways of tackling climate change and allowing skilled African workers to travel to Europe will also be a feature of the partnership. A "governance forum" could be set up to allow parliaments, local authorities and regional organisations to suggest better ways to enforce democratic principles.

"The nature of the relationship will leave behind the donor-recipient relationship of the past and reflect a political partnership of equals," states a draft of the proposal, expected to be launched by Development Commissioner Louis Michel on Thursday (28 June).

The proposal follows the approval at an EU-African ministerial meeting last month of a draft plan for a joint strategy on Africa, which will go before leaders at an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon in December. Next week’s proposal sets out the EU priorities for the strategy.

The proposal acknowledges the "criticism from some quarters" that a previous strategy for Africa "had been developed without sufficient consultations and retained elements of a traditional, unilateral donor-recipient approach". As a result during an EU-African ministerial meeting in 2005 it was decided to "take the partnership to a new, strategy level and develop a joint EU-Africa strategy - a partnership with Africa, rather than a partnership for Africa".

Non-governmental organisations have welcomed a move towards a new relationship with Africa. But some of the issues are viewed in very different ways by Africa and the EU. Joanna Maycock, EU representative at ActionAid international, said: "Governance is also about delivering on existing commitments and in our view when it comes to tacking poverty, increasing development aid and meeting the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals there is a failure of governance in Europe."

African governments would also prefer to see greater freedom of movement of labour but the EU has been investing heavily in restricting migration, said Maycock.

An EU-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) joint parliamentary assembly takes place next week (23-28 June) which will see many of these issues debated.

In particular delegates are expected to raise concerns over how negotiations between the EU and ACP states on Economic Partnership Agreements are proceeding. Other potentially controversial issues at the joint assembly are expected to include resolutions on the conflicts in Darfur and on Zimbabwe.

The European Commission will next week propose a plan for developing a new relationship with Africa which will focus on energy, climate change, migration and promoting democratic rule.