Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: 2 February 2007 - EU Commissioner Louis Michel and the Chairman of the Commission of the African Union Alpha Oumar Konaré launched a public consultation process on a joint EU-Africa Strategy, which shall develop a political vision and practical elements for the future partnership between the EU and Africa.
For the first time ever the European Union and the African Union will develop a joint strategy for the future of their partnership. This strategy should be adopted by the EU/Africa Summit to be held in Lisbon in the second half of 2007.
In 2005, the EU presented its own Africa Strategy, putting Africa at the heart of its political agenda. With the new EU-Africa strategy which will be agreed jointly between the European Union and the African Union, a decisive step will be made to further develop the existing political and strategic partnership between the two continents, a partnership based on common interests and mutual respect.
In order to define the main challenges, objectives and priorities of the EU-Africa Strategy, a wide consultation process of stakeholders in Europe and Africa has been launched by Commissioner Michel and Alpha Omar Konaré, Chairman of the Commission of the African Union. At this occasion Commissioner Michel said: "I would like to invite today members of the civil society, trade unions, entrepreneurs and all African and European citizens concerned with and committed to the future of our continents to make your voices heard and provide your valuable inputs to this important process."
The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Konaré, said, "I request all Africans, whatever their social status, in Africa and in the Diaspora to participate in this consultation designed to collect opinions about the future of Euro-African relations, addressing challenges or suggesting solutions to issues that may shape the EU's and Africa's common future. In a two stage process, the consultation will feed first into a draft discussed at the EU-Africa"Ministerial troika"meeting in Brussels on 15 May and secondly into the final EU-Africa strategy which should be adopted towards the end of the year at the EU/Africa Summit. The consultation is carried out via a special website, http://europafrica.org.
This article was first published on United States of Africa News, N. 4, Winter 2006-7