Leaders from 27 European Union (EU) countries and 53 African nations on Sunday adopted the first Action Plan to implement their Joint Strategy approved at the meeting.
Following are major points of the action plan:
I. EIGHT PARTNERSHIPS
1. EU-Africa Partnership on Peace and Security
-- Enhance dialogue on challenges to peace and security;
-- Full operationalization of the African Peace and Security Architecture;
-- Predictable Funding for African-led Peace Support Operations.
2. EU-Africa Partnership on Democratic Governance and Human Rights
-- Enhance dialogue at global level and in international fora;
-- Promote the African Peer Review Mechanism and support the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance;
-- Strengthen cooperation in the area of cultural goods
3. EU-Africa Partnership on Trade and Regional Integration
-- Support the African integration agenda;
-- Strengthen African capacities in the area of rules, standards, and quality control;
-- Implement the EU-Africa Infrastructure Partnership.
4. EU-Africa Partnership on the Millennium Developments Goals(MDGs)
-- Ensure the finance and policy base for achieving the MDGs;
-- Accelerate the achievement of the Food Security Targets of the MDGs;
-- Accelerate the achievement of the Health Targets of the MDGs;
-- Accelerate the achievement of the Education Targets of the MDGs;
5. EU-Africa Partnership on Energy
-- Implement the Energy Partnership to intensify cooperation on energy security and energy access.
6. EU-Africa Partnership on Climate Change
-- Build a common agenda on climate change policies and cooperation;
-- Cooperate to address land degradation and increasing aridity, including the "Green Wall for the Sahara Initiative."
7. EU-Africa Partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment
-- Implement the Declaration of the Tripoli Conference on Migration and Development;
-- Implement the EU-Africa Plan of Action on Trafficking of Human Beings;
-- Implement and follow up the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Action Plan on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa.
8. EU-Africa Partnership on Science, Information Society and Space
-- Support the development of an inclusive information society in Africa;
-- Support S&T capacity building in Africa and implement Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action;
-- Enhance cooperation on space applications and technology.
II. INSTITUTIONAL ARCHITECTURE
The EU and Africa will establish an appropriate institutional architecture and implementation mechanism that reflects the ambitions and drive behind this partnership, namely through:
-- more frequent contacts between African and EU political leaders, in particular between the Presidents of the EU and AU institutions;
-- Complement bi-annual EU-AU Troika meetings of Foreign Ministers with sectorial Ministerial meetings as necessary;
-- Establish mechanisms for closer cooperation and dialogue between the organs and institutions of the EU and AU, namely pursue the annual meetings between the College of Commissioners of the European and AU Commissions and of the 6-monthly Joint AU-EU Task Force meetings and initiate a regular dialogue and cooperation between the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and the European Parliament (EP);
-- Strengthen the representation of the EU in Addis Ababa and of the AU in Brussels;
-- Establish a mapping of existing European and African civil society networks;
-- Create a web portal to facilitate civil society organizations (CSOs) consultation ahead of key policy decisions;
-- Invite representatives from European and African civil societies to express themselves ahead of Ministerial Troika meetings;
-- Establish informal joint expert groups on all priority actions identified in the Action Plan.
-- Draw up an annual joint report on the progress and implementation of the Action Plan to be presented to the Ministerial Troika meetings;
-- Hold a third EU Africa Summit at the end of 2009 in Africa. This Summit will review the results of the first Action Plan and approve the following one.
Source:Xinhua
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