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EU-AU Summit: reorientation to private partnership

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The 5th summit of the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) was held 29-30 November 2017 in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire).
Agenda
The official theme of the summit: "Investing in youth for a stable future." The population of Africa is the youngest on the planet, half of its inhabitants are less than twenty years old. According to statistics, it is expected that in the next twenty years the number of active population in Africa will increase by 70%.
Some consider this youth as a threat, but the summit's participants see it as an engine and hope for the two continents. The only way to solve African problems is to release this huge potential, to give an opportunity to the new generation to show itself, its ideas, its energy.
Therefore, the goal of the summit is to find ways that would give these young people a qualitative education, a voting right, decent work, clean and safe conditions and make them active subjects of development of their countries. In addressing this challenge, the summit should provide concrete answers in terms of investment in education, technology, the environment, governance, peace and security to ensure equitable, comprehensive and sustainable development. The summit also examined the problems of migration, economic relations between the two continents and the reform of the AU.

The political meaning of the summit name
The first such summit was held in Cairo in 2000. Then the EU defined it as a "meeting with Africa". In 2017 the AU changed, in January the Kingdom of Morocco was officially taken back to the AU, becoming its 55th member.
Now all African countries are members of the Union. Therefore now the EU defines it as the "EU-AU summit". However, here there was a political collision. The new name of the meeting presupposes the participation of all members of the AU, including the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR, in 1976 it was proclaimed by the POLISARIO Front – the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberation de Saguia el Hamra y Rio de Oro - POLISARIO). SADR in Western Sahara is a partially recognized state, a member of the AU. Morocco considers this territory its own, and the recognition of SADR was the reason that the Kingdom left the AU 33 years ago (at that time – the Organization of African Unity).
For SADR this is the first participation in such a summit. Like all members of the AU, she accepted the invitation. This caused discontent of Rabat (Morocco) and embarrassment of Abidjan (the venue of the summit), as well as a significant part of the countries participating in the summit. As a result, at the end of October, this all almost led to the return of the name the EU-Africa summit, and it was almost removed to Addis Ababa (the headquarters of the AU). To resolve the situation, difficult negotiations were conducted on both sides of the Mediterranean, and in the end the name of the event remained as the "summit EU-AU".
Despite the presence of SADR, King of Morocco Mohammed VI took part in the summit, and moreover, he arrived in Abidjan even before the start of the summit with a friendly visit to Côte d'Ivoire. In all, at least 43 African presidents attended this important meeting. Among them: Macky Sall (Senegal), Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (Mali), Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congo-brazzaville), Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Guinée équatoriale), Muhammadu Buhari (Nigeria), Nana Akuffo-Addo (Ghana), Idriss Deby Itno (Tchad), Jacob Zuma (Afrique du Sud), Ali Bongo Ondimba (Gabon), Paul Kagamé (Rwanda), Alpha Conde (Guinea), Beji Caid Essebsi (Tunisia), Mahamadou Issoufou (Niger), Paul Biya (Cameroun), João Lourenco (Angola), Patrice Talon (Benin), Fayez al-Sarraj (Transitional National Council of Libya) and Faure Gnassingbe (Togo).
From the European side 28 member-states were represented, including 16 heads of state, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In general, the summit was attended by more than 600 participants from Europe and Africa.
Redefining the format of the relations between two continents
The significance of the November "summit EU-AU", apart from solving problems for the youth in the future, also consists in the need to redefine the new framework and objectives for the North-South partnership, especially concerning the economic partnership agreements. It equally disturbs representatives of two continents.
Relations between the European and African states have their own development. During the formation of the European Union European countries - former metropolitan countries aimed to maintain relations with the former colonies. Thereby the idea of "association" with dependent territories has appeared, which implied granting them trade concessions and rendering them assistance for development. This idea was formalized in I and II Conventions, signed in Yaoundé (Cameroon) in 1963 and 1969 between African states (mainly the former French and Belgian colonies) and the EU.
Until the mid-1970's. Western Europe was oriented mainly only to relations with francophone countries of West Africa, and in the following decades, in connection with the expansion of the EU, European foreign policy began to develop in many directions and covered practically the entire developing world. Further the conventions were signed in Lomé (Togo), in force from 1975 to 2000. They covered the relationship of the European Union with the countries of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) [Г.Вельяминов Сотрудничество Евросоюза со странами АКТ (страны Африки, Карибского бассейна и Тихого океана) // Международное экономическое право и процесс:. М.: Волтерс Клувер, 2004].
The Lomé I Convention was signed in 1975 with 46 developing ACP countries, Lomé II in 1979 with 58 countries, Lomé III in 1984 with 66 countries, Lomé IV in 1989 with 70 ACP countries, the latter entered into force in 1991 and lasted 10 years. In November 1995, the renewed Lomé IV Convention was signed on the Mauritius island.
I and II The Lomé Conventions were primarily aimed at promoting the industrial development of the ACP countries. The Second Lomé Convention expanded the scope of cooperation of the first convention, including labor migration, investment protection, energy policy and other issues. The Third Lomé Convention was aimed at ensuring food security, it expanded the provisions of the second convention with respect to further deepening commercial cooperation and improving the system of stabilizing export earnings. The IV Lomé Convention focused on long-term development, especially private investment, small business, the promotion of democracy and respect for human rights, and the development of island countries. IV The Lomé Convention had the largest external budget of the EU - more than 2 billion euros per year.
The main tool for assisting ACP States was the European Development Fund (EDF). The implementation of its projects was implemented in five main areas: 1) compensatory finance scheme to stabilise export earnings STABEX, applied to 12 groups of goods, mainly agricultural; 2) the system for the maintenance of production and export of minerals SISMINб provided for the EU to provide financial assistance in the form of long-term loans on preferential terms, for the development and exploitation of deposits, as well as exports to the EU of copper, cobalt, phosphates, bauxites, aluminium, tin, manganese and iron ores, uranium; in 1995 - 2000 years for this purpose, 575 million ECU were assigned;3) assistance in eliminating the consequences of disasters; 4) assistance to refugees; 5) assistance to structural transformations in the economy.
In November 1996 in the "Green Book" the results of the 25 years of the Lomé Conventions were summed up.
In 2000 at the 25th ACP-EU ministerial meeting the treaty in Cotonou (the capital of Benin) was signed on a partnership between the EU and the ACP countries that defined the principles of cooperation of the parties for the next 20 years. Its main goal is the gradual and harmonious integration of the ACP countries into the system of the world economy on the basis of consolidation of regional integration processes within the ACT group itself. Important innovations are the differentiation of aid, the involvement of civil society, the promotion of the private sector, the support of projects related to environmental protection and mining.
The Cotonou Treaty provides a gradual process of transition to a new trade regime, which will be based not on one-sided preferences, but on the principles of reciprocity. Regional agreements on economic cooperation had to become the stages of this process, which had to enter into force in 2008 and to prepare the creation of free economic zones in 2020. In 2005 and 2010 the Cotonou treaty was revised. His term expires in 2020.
Despite the long term of the Cotonou treaty, there are still many countries in Africa that are not ready to sign regional agreements, and will continue to use preferential regimes. Its provisions on regional agreements with the EU were fulfilled by only 12 countries in Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe.
A new stage in relations between Africa and the EU began with the "Africa-EU" summit in Lisbon in 2007, when the EU began to redefine relations not in general with all ACP countries, but separately with African ones. At that time, the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) was adopted, which was based on the principles of ownership, partnership and solidarity, and reflected the intentions of the two continents to go beyond the donor-recipient relationship. Its goal is long-term cooperation on the basis of jointly defined reciprocal and mutually complementary interests https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/regions/africa/continental-cooperation/jo...
Ten years after the adoption of the Lisbon joint strategy in the EU believe that the cooperation of Europeans with Africans is inadequate, does not take full advantage, especially in the areas of finance and security.
The EU is a major player in the global economy. He has a unique experience in the field of economic integration and the development of industrial skills. It accounts almost 20% of the world trade. Its GDP - the leading in the world - 17 trillion dollars. This all provides him with a unique purchasing power. However, it accounts every year only 33% of foreign investment in Africa, 41% of African exports, 33% of African imports, 36% of transfers sent by diaspora, and 50% of official assistance. In comparison with the achievements of Europe, Africa is still looking like a construction site, where many problems for development have not been solved yet. The only reliable resource that the continent can rely on is raw materials; these resources are necessary for the whole world and should provide them economic potential and a source of constant growth for the future.
Thus the previous rules of the current relations between the EU and Africa established by the Cotonou agreement and the Lisbon Joint Africa-EU Strategy did not yield the expected results. Europe must recognize that these documents did not fully help for the development of Africa. The effectiveness of the funds allocated by the European Development Fund in the form of assistance and budget loans are being questioned. Therefore the 2017 Summit should outline a new relationship structure in order to reduce poverty and gradually integrate Africa into the globalization process.

Analysis of relations and determination of future plans
Brexit de facto reduced the budget of the European Development Fund by 15% and removed one of the most influential countries from European-African relations.
Germany is now trying to use a bilateral approach increasing various plans and initiatives (Compact With Africa in the frame of G20, Marshall Plan for Africa, Pro-Afrika). The main idea of these projects concerns immigration issues.
India, Turkey and China are new players on African markets. Since 2000 their market shares in Africa have increased by 5 times from 3.5% to 17.5%. Definitely this is a great success, but it is necessary to take into account certain realities. Only 20% of China's financial contributions to Africa can be viewed as official development assistance in the sense defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For comparison, on the US side this figure is 90%. The bulk of China's "financial assistance" to Africa consists of export credits or loans on market terms. This may not be a problem, but we need to evaluate their consequences in the medium term.
Taking into account the above described scenario, the conclusion arises that it is necessary to develop such a scheme of cooperation with Africa, which will significantly better integrate the contribution of the private sector of the two continents. In a private organization the Movement of Enterprises of France – MEDEF International (fr. Le Mouvement des entreprises de France) working group France – West Africa was established. The head of this group is Bruno Mettling – chairman of the division of the French telco Orange Business Services on Africa and the Middle East (Fr. Orange Afrique et Moyen-Orient). This group has taken the initiative to create a working platform with the European Commission uniting the European and African private sectors.
So far discussions about development assistance have evolved at the level of the contribution of States. France recently pledged to increase its contribution to the level of 0.55% of GDP, while European states were pushed for a contribution of 0.7% of GDP. This is provided by in the Monterrey Consensus of 2002, but according to B. Mettling, the debate about the size of the contribution should not cover the main topic of quality and optimization of the use of funds. In his view the concept of development assistance for Africa should be revised in favor of the term "partnership" - with the exception, of course, of humanitarian crises or security crises - and the European financial support system should evolve with the creation of new tools with a real risk allocation and more systematic assessments. It is also important that assistance help accelerate the digital transformation of Africa, and not only for African start-ups, but for all sectors; especially it will be effective in the banking sector, as it is evidenced by the success of using mobile money.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that a European external investment program was recently launched to mobilize at least 44 billion euros. The goal of this program is to encourage European private investments that meet the goals of sustainable growth, which are determined not only by European partners, but also by African, especially in the most vulnerable areas of the continent.
In the field of security the EU was the first to support the African regional cooperation initiative of the G5 Sahel group (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, established in February 2014), allocating 50 million euros for the creation of their joint armed forces to combat terrorism and international crime. In addition, the migration fund over the past two years has supported projects aimed at addressing key causes of instability and irregular migration in Africa.
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