NEPAD and African Union

Newsletter of the European Union Delegation to the African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The European Union is a key partner for Africa. It has a long history of co-operation with many facets. It involves each country individually and every region through the Regional Economic Communities. The launch of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and the creation of the African Union has added a new pan-African dimension to the EU's relations with Africa.

The European Union sees the new pan-African political institutions and the Nepad initiative as an opportunity for a strengthened and structured political dialogue with Africa, which will help extricate the continent from poverty and marginalisation, with ownership as a guiding principle.

The support that the EU has brought to Nepad since its conception is largely based on the fact that it found in Nepad principles that it values much itself and which guide the EU's own co-operation policy, namely:

African ownership of the development strategy for the continent is the best guarantee to achieve sustainable results in the fight against poverty;

Commitment to core values, especially democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law;

Importance of regional integration.

What makes Nepad in particular attractive for the international community at large is the concept of partnership. The traditional scheme of "donor-recipient" is replaced by a relationship between partners, with an obligation of mutual accountability. This is a a concept that was also at the core of the Monterey Declaration two years ago. The EU believes that this is the right approach to govern North-South relations in the 21st century. All these elements are central to the EU itself, and they form the basis for EU international co-operation, with Africa, as well as with other partners in the world.

The EU is also pleased to note the progress that Nepad has achieved in a number of areas since its founding in 2001. Firstly, the relationship between the AU and Nepad have been clarified. Nepad has been recognised as a socio-economic development programme of the AU and, as a result, a fusion of Nepad into the AU has been decided. The EU believes that these important decisions will reinforce pan-African initiatives and will give them the synergy they need.

Secondly, the African Peer Review Mechanism has become operational with assessments of Ghana and Rwanda, and the review process for South Africa starting. This is a very ambitious process, with a bold and broad scope, and potentially a powerful tool to address the governance obstacles to Africa's development. Thirdly, a new pan-African institutional framework is being established, with such important institutions as the pan-African Parliament, the Peace and Security Council and the Court of Justice. The EU believes that these structures will fully contribute to achieving the objectives championed by Nepad, especially in the areas of peace, security and governance.

Encouraged by this positive evolution on the African side, the European Commission, and the EU as a whole, are strongly committed to continued support for Nepad. EU political support has been expressed most clearly in multilateral fora, particularly the G8, but also in the United nations, as well as the recently launched Africa Partnership Forum. In June 2005 the EU committed itself to the doubling of aid until 2010, and 15 EU Member States committed to reaching the UN target of 0.7% of GDP allocated to development assistance. In July 2005 at Gleneagles, Scotland, G8 leaders added their pledges to those of the EU and agreed that global aid will rise by $50 billion a year by 2010. Half of this aid will go to Africa. The G8 countries and the EU are also determined to cancel 100% of the debts owed by the world's poorest countries to the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

The EU thus provides concrete, financial support to Nepad objectives. EU assistance covers all the sectoral priorities championed by Nepad . This support is channeled through EU regional and national programmes, under the Cotonou Agreement, which are developed jointly with respective African regions and countries, according to priorities that they present to us. Because the EU has built African ownership into its own programming methods, it is confident that the focus of its aid programmes is fully in line with the collective priorities of Africa, as expressed in Nepad strategies and programmes.

But it is thanks to integration of Nepad primarily into the Regional Economic Communities and the African Union institutions that the EU, and other partners, will be able to support Nepad more concretely. A new type of assistance to pan-African activities and institutions is developing, with EU programmes that go beyond the traditional support for countries and regions. The EU African Peace Facility represents a concrete example. This 250 million euro Facility will support the African Union when it undertakes Africa-owned and Africa-led peacekeeping operations. It greatly reinforces the political role of the African Union and the Peace and Security Council. But at the same time it constitutes an important contribution to one of the key premises of Nepad: there will be no development without peace and vice-versa.

In parallel, the European Commission has built a strong working relationship with the Nepad Secretariat, developing a regular structured dialogue covering a broad range of issues. Main areas of discussion to date have included infrastructure, environment, agriculture, capacity building and EC regional assistance to Africa with respect to Nepad priorities. In response to the challenges facing the African continent as regards infrastructure, the EU is proposing to establish a Partnership for Infrastructure. The purpose would be to initiate programmes which facilitate interconnectivity at a continental level for the promotion of regional integration", ultimately leading to sustainable infrastructure and services for economic growth which contribute to reducing poverty.

The advent of Nepad and the AU made the EU aware of the need to establish a new, pan-African layer to its co-operation with the continent. As a result, the European Commission suggested in its June 2003 Communication on EU-Africa dialogue practical steps that would allow the EU to treat Africa as one entity. The Communication indicates that it has become necessary to build bridges between the different Agreements between the EU and Africa (the Cotonou and MEDA Agreements, as well as the EU-SA Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement). In the longer run, EU assistance to the continent as a whole should be set in a coherent framework to better reflect this pan-African reality, if African ownership would lead to such a conclusion. In October 2005 the Commission adopted a proposal for a new EU Strategy for Africa.

Another important aspect is the consistency of EU overall support to Africa with pan-African priorities and strategies. Both partners are willing to ensure that EU external assistance to Africa on the national and regional level is coherent with Nepad pan-African priorities.

Europe has changed over the last few years. For this new and enlarged Europe, development will remain a priority. Strong regional building blocks will be conducive to the longer term objective of African integration. While strengthening its relationship with African partners in a regional setting (EU-Mediterranean Partnership, EU-ACP EPAs, EU-SA TDCA), the EU is also progressively learning to speak to one Africa, and Africa must learn to speak to the EU as one entity. The EU is bringing more consistency to its support to Africa and developing a more coherent policy in support of pan-African policy with coherent financial means. On its side, the EU will continue to support and encourage pan-African initiatives, both politically within the international community, as well as through its co-operation programmes. The EU is also willing to re-think its own side of the partnership to respond to Nepad in a way that this bold initiative deserves.

For information on the African Union, Nepad, EU-Africa dialogue, please visit: