1. SUCCESFUL MEETING BETWEEN AFRICAN
HEADS OF STATE AND THE EU ON THE NEW AFRICAN INITIATIVE
At a meeting, this week, African heads of State and the EU had an
extensive and very fruitful debate on the New African Initiative
(NAI). The essence of the initiative is to create an African
endeavour in order to resolve African problems and to embody
African ownership. The NAI places emphasis on democracy,
transparency, good governance and the rule of law and human
rights as fundamental factors of development. The EU welcomed the
initiative and at the same time it was impressed by the political
will of the African leaders to pursue peace, stability, democracy
and development on the African Continent. As already stated in
the work programme of the current Belgian EU presidency the EU
stressed the importance of developing further its partnership
with Africa. The two parties agreed that there should be created
links between the NAI and EU institutional frameworks and a
regular dialogue as the NAI takes form.
2. AFRICA-EUROPE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
– CREATION OF AN EARLY WARNING SYSTEM TO PREVENT CONFLICTS
IN AFRICA
The first Africa-Europe Ministerial Meeting, which has been
established in order to give impetus to and monitor
implementation of the Cairo Plan of Action, was held in Brussels
this week. The holding of the ministerial meeting was welcomed
and the representatives considered the meeting as a step towards
the next Africa-EU summit in Lisbon in 2003. At the same time
they also welcomed the offer by Burkina Faso to host the second
Africa-Europe Ministerial Meeting that will take place in the
fall of 2002, and in which the preservation and consolidation of
the new Africa-Europe partnership will be addressed.
The African and EU ministers have agreed
to establish an “early warning system” to prevent
conflict in Africa, based on indicators to measure tensions, for
instance incitements to ethnic or religious strife in the
regional media. The move is one of the first concrete proposals
to follow up on an action plan for Africa agreed upon at the
Africa-EU summit in Cairo in 2000.
At the meeting ministers agreed to
continue their cooperation on preparation for the 4th
WTO Ministerial Conference in order to agree on multilateral
trade negotiations that address development issues and support
the integration of Africa into the world economy. In this
connection the EU accepted to support the request from the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to obtain observer status in
the WTO. Furthermore, the ministers also noted a narrowing of
differences and the identification of common ground on HIV/AIDS
and other pandemics, on food security and on human rights,
democracy and good governance. There was also a desire to prepare
an action plan to combat trafficking of human beings, in
particular woman and children. It was agreed that it is necessary
to place more emphasis on the external debt of African countries
and the return of stolen or illicitly stolen goods. At the
ministerial meeting the terrorist attacks of the 11th
September were condemn and followed up by a joint declaration on
terrorism. The joint declaration terrorism can be found on http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/eu_africa_en.htm
3. PROGRESS IN SINGAPORE TOWARDS THE
LAUNCH OF A NEW TRADE ROUND – A CHANCE THAT THE LOCATION OF
THE WTO MEETING WILL BE CHANGED
According to EU trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy the
preparations for the Doha trade round have nearly been completed.
Nevertheless, the Pakistani Minister, Ab du Razak Dawood have
said that more should have been done as to answer the problems of
implementations encountered by most developing countries. In
a press release he stated that there are still some preparations
for the remaining
controversial subjects such as antidumping
and agriculture. The EU have confirmed that it is ready to
carry out greater liberalisation of agricultural trade through
better market access and further reduction of export
subsidies. Still, Lamy stresses that during the Uruguay round the
EU have done more than it was obliged to.
Meanwhile the
agenda for the new Round, the so-called “ new development
agenda” is taking form the possibility of finding an
alternative location for the WTO meeting is being discussed.
The majority of the ministers attending the Singapore mini summit
last weekend expressed their concerns about meeting in a area of
rising tensions. Singapore, which hosted a WTO meeting in
1996, has shown interest in hosting the 4th WTO
Ministerial conference, which will still take place on 9-13
November.
4. SEMINAR ON EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT
POLICY- BELGIAN ORGANISATIONS RAISE QUESTIONS FOR THE 8th
NOVEMBER DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
On 3 and 4 October
several Belgian organisations and the two Coalitions of
CNCD/opération 11.11.11 and the Coalition of the Flemish
North-South Movement/ 11.11.11 organised in the framework of the
Belgian Presidency of the EU a seminar on European Development
Policy. During the two days event the NGDOs raised several issues
and came up with some questions. On participation of civil
society in the framework of Cotonou the Belgian NGOs are
convinced that the participation process of civil society
in the framework of Cotonou should be seen as a bottom up
approach, where autonomous and representative umbrella
structure on the local and national level should take the lead.
Furthermore, European NGDOs should support their ACP counterparts
in this process and create space for their future involvement.
Questions were raised to the Commission and the Council to supply
small grants to build up non-state actors structures and to
support capacity building. The Commission was also urged to make
draft country strategy papers available on the Internet. On development
education the NGDOs requested the Council to adopt the
foreseen resolution and that follow up measures are taken. On the
issue of poverty reduction and the role of EU aid
several NGOs stressed the importance of having a full fledged EU
Development Policy, that isn’t subordinated to foreign
policy and trade and raised the importance of having indicators
in the Annual Report that assess the progress made on poverty
reduction. On the role of civil society in Europe the main
issue was that the Commission should set up monitoring and
evaluation mechanisms as to make sure that consultations have a
real impact on decisions that are taken.
More information and background material http://eu.ngoforum.be/english/kalender/kal_14.php
Written by Rein Antonissen, European
Policy Officer in 11.11.11
5. UPCOMING EVENT- THE THIRD SESSION OF
THE ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY
The 3rd ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA)
will take place in Brussels on 29 October to 1 November. It is
the third session since the signing of the Cotonou Agreement in
June 2000. The Assembly consist of members of the European
Parliament and representatives from the ACP countries, but there
will also be some participation from civil society. Eurostep will
have a representative at the JPA. Among other things
there will be a Working Group on the implementation of the new
Partnership agreement and a session in which subjects and themes
relating to development cooperation between the EU and ACP
countries under the Cotonou will be addressed. These subjects are
migration, food security, disabled and aged populations, gender
issues and AIDS. There will also be workshops involving civil
society on 1) Sustainable development and management of natural
resources, focussing on fisheries 2) Monetary cooperation 3) The
rights of the child
More info on http://www.europarl.eu.int/intcoop/acp/en/default.htm
6. To our
readers: Please note that there will be no PAF next week as
the Eurostep staff will be busy with our yearly Advocacy Seminar.
The next PAF will be ready on the 2 November.