SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Officials meeting here Wednesday to prepare for the upcoming EU-Africa summit this weekend expressed high hopes, lauding that envoys from both the European Union and the African Union will convene again after seven years. The first gathering of the EU and AU was held in Cairo in 2000. The Dec. 8-9 EU-Africa summit in Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is to address governance and human rights, peace and security, migration, energy and climate change, and trade. Ahead of Lisbon, Egypt hosted 45 African foreign ministers and 15 European state ministers and senior officials at Wednesday's preparatory conference. They agreed summits should be held every three years, with preparatory meeting in between. Officials also "underlined the importance of the strategic relations between EU and Africa,'' according to a statement, and expressed "confidence and aspiration that the upcoming summit in Lisbon ... would enlarge the scope of their cooperation for a wide ranging and people-centered partnership of equals.'' Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Wednesday's meeting was "very successful'' and would "contribute a lot to securing success for the Lisbon summit.'' Aboul Gheit talked to reporters with his counterparts from Ghana and Belgium, and also Louis Michel, EU's top development official. Aboul Gheit also said that they decided on two documents that would come out of the Lisbon summit: The African-European Agenda Strategy and the "Lisbon Declaration.'' Much is expected from Lisbon. But unlike the EU-Africa gathering in 2000, new issues now top the global agenda, such as terrorism and illegal migration. The past also continues to tug at the EU-AU relations, with colonial wounds still painful, and many African countries continuing to have tense relations with their former colonizers that affect trade deals and foreign policy. Another divisive issue ahead of Lisbon is the attendance of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, 83, who declared Tuesday he was going to Portugal in defiance of some European leaders and the United States. This has prompted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to stay away from Lisbon. Host Portugal and Spain have also said they would prefer Mugabe to stay away but Portugal bowed to AU's wish that leaders of all its members be invited. In Washington, Jendayi Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Monday the US disagreed with the decision to invite Mugabe to the summit. The New York-based Human Rights Watch expressed doubts Tuesday that Lisbon would make a difference for the people in Darfur and Somalia, and urged that it "commit to specific actions.'' "Darfur is an immediate test for the leaders of Europe and Africa,'' said Reed Brody from the Human Rights Watch. Although Darfur by itself is not on the summit's agenda, Aboul Gheit said human rights would still be addressed in Lisbon under the topics of "peace and security.''
