The Africa-EU strategic partnership: A joint Africa-EU strategy
December 2007
African Union (AU), European Union (EU)
Africa and Europe are bound together by history, culture, geography, a common future, as well as by a community of values: the respect for human rights, freedom, equality, solidarity, justice, the rule of law and democracy as enshrined in the relevant international agreements and in the constitutive texts of our respective Unions.
Since the historic first Africa-EU Summit in Cairo in 2000, where our partnership was strengthened through the institutionalisation of our dialogue, considerable change has taken place on both continents. Democratisation and reform processes have been launched and are being deepened in both Africa and Europe and efforts have continued on both continents to address conflict and crisis situations. At the same time, integration processes on both continents have accelerated – on the one hand, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has been transformed into the African Union (AU) with its socio-economic programme, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD); on the other hand, the European Union (EU) has nearly doubled in size and is in the process of deepening the Union. The world has also changed: new international and global challenges have emerged, globalisation has accelerated and the world has become increasingly interdependent.
In response to these changes, cooperation between Africa and the EU has rapidly developed and diversified. Both sides have developed political strategies and policy documents to guide their cooperation, including the AU Constitutive Act and Strategic Framework 2004-2007 and the EU Africa Strategy of 2005. However, it is now time for these two neighbours, with their rich and complex history, to forge a new and stronger partnership that builds on their new identities and renewed institutions, capitalises on the lessons of the past and provides a solid framework for long-term, systematic and well integrated cooperation. There is now a need for a new phase in the Africa-EU relationship, a new strategic partnership and a Joint Africa-EU Strategy as a political vision and roadmap for the future cooperation between the two continents in existing and new areas and arenas.
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