EU-Africa summit – Photo EU Council
(ABIDJAN) – European and African leaders set out their commitment at the close of an EU-Africa summit Thursday to invest in youth for a sustainable future, prioritising investment, education, security and migration.
The 5th African Union – European Union Summit in Ivory Coast brought together leaders from 55 African Union and 28 European Union Member States.
“The European Union is Africa’s biggest partner and closest neighbour,” said EU Council president Donald Tusk: “Its biggest investor, its biggest trading partner, its biggest provider of development aid and humanitarian assistance as well as its biggest contributor in peace and security. And this summit demonstrated our determination to reinforce our partnership even more.”
In their political declaration, the leaders adopted a joint declaration outlining common priorities for the EU-Africa partnership in four strategic areas:
- investments for African structural and sustainable transformation – the EU’s External Investment Plan will mobilise EUR 44 billion of private investments for sustainable development and job creation.
- Investing in people through education, science, technology and skills development – agreement to enhance the mobility of students, staff and academics across the African continent, as well as exchange programmes between Africa and Europe, such as ERASMUS+.
- mobility and migration – leaders reaffirmed their strong political commitment to address the root causes of irregular migration in a spirit of genuine partnership and shared responsibility.
- Resilience, Peace, security and governance – working to enhance peace and security on both continents, strengthening strategic, political and operational cooperation between the African Union and European Union, in close partnership with the United Nations. Support to ongoing work to fight against terrorism was reiterated.
The 6th EU-Africa business forum took place on 27 November, where business leaders, investors, innovative start-ups, and young and female entrepreneurs from both continents developed recommendations on how to improve the business and investment climate.
Factsheet on the EU external investment plan (European Commission)
Website of the 5th African Union – EU summit, 29-30 November 2017
EU-Africa relations
