Europe-Africa Relations against the background of the Austrian EU Presidency
Geert Laporte, European Centre for Development Policy Management ECDPM
José Costa Pereira, European External Action Service EEAS (tbc)
Désirée Schweitzer, Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs BMEIA (tbc)
Moderation:
Georg Lennkh, Member of the Board of the Bruno Kreisky Forum
EU-Africa relations are entering, after the AU-EU Summit in Abidjan, Nov. 29 and 30, 2017, a new phase, well captured with the title ‘More of the same is not good enough’. African and European actors seem to be conscious of the relevance of this statement, while at the same time, advocates of the status quo on both sides are equally vocal. The discussion is now gathering speed and one of the central questions will be the renewal or replacement of the most important legal and financial instrument linking the AU and the EU, namely the treaty of Cotonou. This will have a significant impact on economic, trade, and development relations between the two continents, but also on their political relations and formal links.
Concrete negotiations on this fundamental changeover will start later this year, under the aegis of the Austrian EU Presidency. With the AU decisions of Kigali to break the decades-old mold of Yaoundé, Lomé and Cotonou, diplomatic activity on what kind of overall framework to be chosen has intensified. It is all the more important to already now outline some of the most salient objectives, but also critical difficulties for the negotiations.
The panelists will share with us their reflections on prospects for relations between Africa and Europe, and what we can do for it.
A publication on previous work:
Over the last year, the Kreisky Forum organized, together with others, a series of seminars on the multiple facets of relations between Europe and Africa. Questions like Peace and Security, Migration or Common Values such as Democracy and Good Governance were discussed, and a report handed to the Austrian delegation to the AU-EU summit held in Abidjan 29 to 30 November 2017. The protocols of these seminars, the Austrian statement at the summit and the final declaration of the summit were collected in a short publication, and are presented here for the first time.
Geert LAPORTE
Deputy Director of The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) a “think and do tank” based in Maastricht (The Netherlands) and Brussels (Belgium) that specializes in EU development and external relations with a particular focus on Africa and the ACP. He is responsible for ECDPM’s relations with the EU institutions, EU Presidencies and EU member states, the African Union, the ACP institutions and a broad network of global partners and institutions.
Laportes areas of interest and specialization include: the 2030 Universal Sustainable Development Agenda, EU external action and development policy and the EU-Africa and the EU-ACP Partnerships. In his work he focuses particularly on policy coherence for sustainable development, multi-stakeholder participation and inclusive partnerships, support to democratisation and governance, conflict and development, migration and development and regional integration.
He has been involved in extensive policy research, institutional audits, evaluations and has also built a longstanding experience in policy dialogue facilitation.
José COSTA-PEREIRA
Policy and Communication Adviser to the Managing Director for Africa, European External Action Service (EEAS)
José Costa Pereira was appointed Adviser for Policy and Communication of the Africa Managing Director at EEAS in 2014, where he is responsible for a wide array of subjects including public diplomacy, energy, China in Africa. From 2011 to 2014 he was Head of the EEAS Pan-African Affairs Division, where he was in charge of preparing the IV EU-Africa Summit and providing strategic political objectives in relation to Joint Africa EU Strategy (JAES) as well as conducting the overall JAES political dialogue. Prior to that he was Head of the Africa Unit in the European Council Secretariat and Head of the Task Force Africa Policy Unit of the High Representative in Brussels. He is a career diplomat and has been posted to the Portuguese Embassy in Washington, after holding several positions in the Portuguese ministries of Home Affairs and of Foreign Affairs as well as in the embassies in Tokyo and Sydney.
Désirée SCHWEITZER
Head of the Development Cooperation Section of the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs. She joined the diplomatic service in 1988. Most recently, she was Senior Liaison Ambassador of the Austrian OSCE Chairmanship 2017. Schweitzer has been closely linked to development cooperation for decades. She is a founding member and chairwoman of the club 0.7% in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, founded in 1988, whose members commit themselves to implementing the UN goal through private commitment and have supported microprojects in 64 countries and regions with 0.7% of their salary. After years as a senior international civil servant in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, where she served as Deputy Director i.a. responsible for environment and energy security and the whole issue of Sustainable Development Goals, she returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 2018.