Why Africa matters

Author (Corporate)
Series Title
Series Details No.26, April 2014
Publication Date 11/04/2014
ISSN 2315-1129
Content Type

The 4th EU-Africa Summit held in Brussels in April 2014 brought together 80 national delegations, 41 of them led by heads of state or government. African leaders ignored Zimbabwe’s call for a boycott or postponement of the summit, following the EU’s refusal to lift travel restrictions on President’s Mugabe’s wife. Described by the prime minister of Lesotho as a ‘business-like’ event, the summit took place at a busy time for African summitry, which now includes a United States-Africa meeting (scheduled for August 2014), and, since 2000, regular China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summits.

While all these top-level meetings are a sign of the growing geopolitical importance of the continent, both the EU’s attempts to strengthen its partnership with Africa and its Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) have, to date, largely disappointed. The summit in Brussels sought, therefore, to place the partnership on a firmer footing.

Source Link Link to Main Source https://publications.europa.eu/s/djtl
Related Links
ESO: Background information: EU-Africa Summit 2014 (Brussels, 2-3 April 2014) http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-africa-summit-2014-brussels-2-3-april-2014/

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