Summit ends with disputes on trade and human rights
10 December, 2007
The EU-Africa Summit ended on Sunday with the approval of the Joint Strategy and the Lisbon Declaration. Several issues were however disputed during the summit, including on trade. BBC reports that Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said that “We are not talking any more about EPAs, we’ve rejected them.”
Human rights was also a contested issue. Germany’s Angela Merkel was chosen to speak out against Mugabe on behalf o fhte EU. In her speech she challenged African leaders to confront abuses on their doorsteps. “The current state of Zimbabwe damages the image of the new Africa. Because this is so, we must take the chance here, in this framework, to put all our efforts together into strengthening democracy” (Deutsche Welle; see Merkel’s speech, in German - pdf). The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso also critisised Mugabe: “We cannot understand that those who once fought for the freedom of their country now deny that freedom to their citizens.” President of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare said instead: “Let’s be honest, there are problems of governance. But Africans themselves have to sort these out, to tackle them head on. Otherwise we won’t be able to get beyond our difficulties”. Mugabe responded to critisism by accusing the Europeans for being neo-colonialists (BBC). He told European leaders he will not be lectured on how to rule Zimbabwe (Reuters).
Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir received a similar rebuke from a delegation of European leaders, including Portugal’s Socrates and French President Nicolas Sarkozy who implored him to allow the rapid deployment of a UN-led peacekeeping force to stem the bloodshed in the western Darfur region (news24).
Reuters reports that human rights and anti-poverty campaigners said they were disappointed by the meagre results at the summit. “If you wait seven years and then try to force through deals by the end of the year, you will inevitably end up with an exercise in grandstanding and not real progress … we think this is a waste,” said Martin Kirk of British charity Save the Children.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, said it was an achievement in itself that the meeting had taken place. In his welcoming speech he spoke of the joint stratetgy and that it is the first time that Europe and Africa have shared a common vision for the future. He further argued that the new relationship “requires political dialogue that is candid, mature and open. A dialogue with no taboos in which no subject is prohibited.”
John Kufuor, the president of Ghana and current president of the African Union, co-chaired the summit together with Socrates. He also defended the need to develop a new cooperation between Europe and Africa, at all levels, because “for both of us to be present in this global village, Africa needs Europe and Europe needs Africa”.
View BBC broadcast of the summit
