Neither the EU-Africa summit nor French proposals to establish a Euro-Mediterranean union seem able to narrow the gap between the two continents, reports Doaa El-Bey The EU-Africa summit, which concluded in Lisbon this week, was ripe with rhetoric like "forge a relation of genuine equals", "we used to have a policy for Africa; now we want a policy with Africa", "a new departure in relations between the two continents", and "a summit free of taboos". However, the "strategic partnership" document produced at the end of the two- day summit could only be described as a statement of intent. It failed to outline plans to deal with pressing issues like peace and security, migration and employment, commerce and regional integration. In the field of peace and security, the EU and Africa agreed to work together to enhance capacity "to respond timely and adequately to security threats". The two sides also pledged to undertake joint assessment missions to conflict and post-conflict areas and launch joint initiatives when deemed appropriate. Meanwhile, the summit failed to achieve any progress on the pressing humanitarian crisis of Darfur. Sudan and UN envoys met on the sidelines of the summit. They said in a brief joint statement there had been "clarification" of some issues, but gave no details. Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who attended the summit, has so far refused to allow non-Africans into a 26,000- strong UN-African Union peacekeeping force planned for Darfur. Regarding the issue of migration, the two sides pledged to address the root causes of migration and refugee flows and promote ethical recruitment policies in Europe. In addition, both sides committed themselves to help African migrants to integrate more fully in their new countries of residence. Helmi Shaarawi, director of the Arab African Research Centre, opined that the issue of illegal immigration should have been dealt with much more thoroughly. "After all, it is taking the life of thousands of African migrants who dream of a better life in Europe," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. There are some 10 million illegal African immigrants living in Europe. Trade cooperation was one of the top and most important issues before the summit. However, European leaders acknowledged the difficulty of reaching Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between wealthy European countries and poor African nations. The EU wants to meet a 31 December deadline set by the World Trade Organisation for replacing its present trading system with African and other former European colonies around the world. The WTO has ruled that the EU's 30-year-old trade agreement with Africa is unfair and violates international standards. African leaders rejected the EPAs because "they are not in Africa's interest," and "will not contribute to the development of African countries, as they do not assist in fighting poverty". African Union (AU) Commission President Alpha Oumar Konare said the proposed EPAs proved that the EU had not given up its colonial approach. While negotiations on trade agreements started five years ago, there were hopes that the summit would advance the process. Given that debt is one of the crippling factors impairing development in Africa, a breakthrough on that issue was also expected from the summit. According to Gamal Bayoumi, secretary-general of the Arab Investors' Union, "if we look at the balance of payments of any African state, we will find that the interest of incurred debt exceeds income together with the aid that Europe offers. Thus there is always a deficit." Bayoumi, who was closely involved in Egypt-EU partnership talks, regards the decision of European states to write off part of African debts at the first Africa-EU summit held in Egypt in 2000 as insufficient. Seven years later, debts have noticeably increased, reaching $350 billion this year. He calls for a genuine and comprehensive plan for economic reform in Africa. Although EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso declared in a press conference in Brussels two days before the summit that the meeting would produce an action plan with "concrete partnerships" on the issues discussed (peace and security, democratic governance and human rights, trade and regional integration, environment and climate change and migration, mobility and employment), the summit fell short of producing any such plan. In addition, it failed to fix a date for the next summit, though Barroso had mentioned that there were plans to convene every three years. Nonetheless, representatives of the 27 EU member states and 53 African states endorsed the strategic partnership document. Shaarawi attributed the inability of the summit to achieve results to the spirit of mutual criticism that overwhelmed the meeting. The German chancellor criticised the Zimbabwean president for his country's human rights practices. In response, some African leaders criticised the German chancellor. Concurrently, the EU commissioner criticised the Sudanese president while the AU's secretary-general criticised the EU for trying to conclude interim trade accords with African countries. "That is an immoral way of prioritising EU economic interests over the political and economic interests of African states, making use of the weakness of each individual state before a strong bloc like the EU," he said. While the summit failed to secure significant progress, French President Nicolas Sarkozy reiterated his proposal, made immediately after he was elected earlier this year, to establish a "Mediterranean Union". He plans to hold a summit meeting by June 2008 to officially introduce the proposal to Mediterranean states. While some welcomed the suggestion initially, it was met by reservations from others. "Sarkozy did not offer any details for that union," Bayoumi said. Many questions about the proposal remain unanswered, like whether Turkey and perhaps Israel would be included, or whether Germany would be included, though not a Mediterranean state.
