Africa-EU Partnership update

07 December 2011

Africa-EU Partnership

On the Energy partnership it has been a busy year. There is a feeling, however, that some of the momentum from the AEEP High Level Meeting last year has been lost. There is more concern for the AEEP to be doing something rather than formulating plans and objectives.  There continues to be a difference of interpretation between the African and European partners about the purpose of the AEEP; the former seeing it as an implementing agency and the latter seeing it as a forum for dialogue.  But, there is agreement about the need for a more permanent means of exchange with and amongst the stakeholder groups.

The AEEP Partnership Forum is likely to be held during the first half of 2012 with three stakeholder group focal points – NGOS, Research and Private sector.  A maximum of three representatives from each group in each continent (i.e. 18 names) is required.  Other participants at the Preparatory Meeting will include the Co-Chairs of the JEG, and EC and AUC officials.

Alternatively, things have been quiet on the Climate and environment partnership. There has been little participation in the climate and environment partnership this year on the side of civil society in Europe.  We have received news but have had few opportunities to actively participate in joint expert groups in 2011. Certainly, a side event about the partnership took place in Durban on 1 December, but plans for a joint AU-EU declaration did not come to fruition.

There has been an interesting debate in the case of fast start finance for climate actions.  The EU issued its report on how it is delivering on fast start finance commitments to the UN in November whereas a study from the African Climate Policy Centre found that there were major gaps and discrepancies from developed countries overall in the follow-up to the $30 billion global commitment. The African Climate Centre is the technical arm of the Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev) programme which is itself supported through the JAES partnership.  Link to press release of the report (the report itself is not yet available online).

Regarding the environment, the EU has plans, through the partnership, to support a biodiversity conference for African states during 2012, debating the economics of ecosystem and biodiversity loss. Ironically, at the same time, the demand from Europe for Africa’s natural resources are causing more and more concern for many environmentalists. The latest example are the plans from a number of European-based extractive industry companies to explore oil and gas within the Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a World Heritage Site and refuge of the iconic mountain gorillas. This incongruity between the EU plans and European industry, is something that needs to be resolved.