EESC - SECTION FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS

ACP-EU Follow-up Committee

Opportunities and challenges of the implementation

of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES)

18th of May 2010

Faten Aggad – ECDPM/SAIIA

Fernanda Faria – IEEI / ECDPM

Andrew Sherriff - ECDPM

About Presentation Team •! ECDPM – Independent foundation created in 1986 with

offices in Maastricht and Brussels. It aims to improve relations and cooperation between the European Union and the countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP).

•! IEEI (Institute for Strategic and International Studies) – a Lisbon-based independent think tank, created in 1980. It aims at promoting research and debate on international issues. Africa program focuses on regional cooperation, security issues and EU development cooperation.

•! SAIIA (South African Institute of International Affairs) – Johannesburg-based think tank focused on South Africa’s and Africa’s international relations. SAIIA aims at providing analysis, promoting dialogue and contributing to African policy making in a dynamic global context.

EU-Africa Relations: a Critical Year

•! 3rd EU-Africa Heads of State Summit in November 2010 (Libya)

•! Assessment of the implementation of the 1st Action Plan and

discussion and Agreement on 2nd Action Plan of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES)

•! New EU post-Lisbon Institutional Set-Up

•! UN MDG review

•! Mexico Climate Change meeting

•! Review of Cotonou Partnership Agreement completed

Background to the Joint Africa-EU Strategy

(JAES) •! Adopted at the 2nd EU-Africa Heads of State Summit in Lisbon in

December 2007

•! JAES is not a legal framework – Cotonou Agreement is a legal

framework – but an agreed Strategy

•! European Commission, African Union Commission AND states from Europe

and Africa are key stakeholders – but also supposedly are CSOs,

Parliaments, private sector, Regional Economic Communities, other parties

•! A more overtly “political” strategy (rather than technical or aid)

•! Why the strategy?- globalization, geopolitical considerations, political

integration, ‘failure’ of the past

•! JAES accompanied by a 3 year “Action Plan” 2008-2010 (to be

assessed at the end of 2010)

Joint ownership

Partnership of equals

Beyond institutions

Beyond development

Continent to continent

dialogue

Concrete action

Treating Africa as one

Mutual interests

People centered

partnership

JAES Thematic Partnerships

•! Ideals applied through a set of 8 partnerships

•! Membership of thematic partnerships among EU MS, African states, European Commission, African Union Commission, civil society representatives

•! Members meet in African and European Implementation Teams (mainly from the European side) then Joint Expert Groups

•! Priority actions and Joint Africa-EU Expert Groups (JEGs) for each thematic partnership agreed

JAES and EU-Africa relations - So where are we

really?

Some Analysis Drawn From

Assessing the JAES so far

•! 1st its important to recognize that multilateral

frameworks such as the JAES take time to consolidate

Assessing the JAES so far However, it is possible to look at the trajectory over the past

2.5 years to see some emerging trends in the implementation

of the JAES:

•! Lack of solid analysis of the interests at stake (incentives) to justify

issues like low ownership

•! Divergence of interest both between continents and within continents

•! Dilution of political dialogue component of the JAES

•! Limited success in establishing a ‘continent-to-continent’ partnership

•! JAES not instrumental in treating Africa as one

•! JAES uneasy coexistence with and added value vis-à-vis other policy

frameworks

•! No dedicated financial resources for the JAES and asymmetries in

capacity

•! Peace and Security

Overall objective: To cooperate in enhancing the capacity of Africa and EU

to respond timely and adequately to security threats, and also to join efforts in addressing global challenges

Priority Action 1: Enhance Dialogue on Challenges to Peace and Security

Priority Action 2: Full Operationalisation of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA)

Priority Action 3: Predictable Funding for African-Led Peace Support

Operations, especially in the context of debates in the UN

Assessing the JAES –

at the Thematic Partnership Level

Peace and Security (cont.)

•! An enabling environment for effective dialogue and collaboration in

place .

Thus, the JAES Peace and Security Partnership benefitted from

(i)! the existence of continental agendas

(ii)! a set of specific institutional and political arrangements on both sides

(iii)! Minimum level of clarification between the AU and the RECs on the

issues and EU institutions and EU member-states; (iv)! The availability of aligned funding in Africa Peace Facility – but also

“flanking funding” (v)! More mature and respectful dialogue – on-going for some time

(vi)! Undisputed AU mandate and leadership in Peace and Security issues

(vii)! More developed resourced structures within the Africa Union Commission

Assessing the JAES –

at the Thematic Partnership Level

•! Governance partnership –! Lack of set governance structure on the African side to dialogue with

the EU (as is the case in the P&S partnership)

–! Very limited progress due to lack of political consensus on the added

value of the partnership

–! Real issues of political dialogue take place within other frameworks,

i.e. the Cotonou agreement

–! Delays with the establishment of the Platform for Dialogue envisaged

under the Partnership as focus was largely on power-less individual

actors rather than a systematic/actor-based approach

Assessing the JAES –

at the Thematic Partnership Level

•! Trade, Regional Integration and Infrastructure The “JAES” does not address central issues such as:

1. North-Africa Sub-Saharan Africa –South Africa split in Africa and with EU engagement

2. African Regional Integration coherence/incoherence and impact of EPAs

3. Trade and Integration Lesson from EU-MED agreements; etc

Need for stronger political will and involvement/engagement from stakeholders;

Engagement of real experts and not just Diplomats in the JEGs

Scenarios for the future of the JAES

•! Scenario 1: Status quo or limited

changes to current set-up

•! Scenario 2: Reforming with caution -

with the risk of stopping half way

•! Scenario 3: establish an enabling

environment

•! Integration of actors beyond Commissions and Member States still unclear;

except for the Parliaments (European and Pan-Africa Parliaments) who

were successful in jointly lobbying for their role in the JAES

•! Some attempts have taken place for the incorporation of civil society

organisations:

–! In Africa such role has been assumed by the ECOSOCC and incorporates some non-ECOSOCC civil society members in the AU CSO Steering Committee

–! On the EU side, EU civil society networks have initiated the establishment of the EU CSO

Steering Group

•! Official AU – EU CSO representatives (from the Steering groups) from

African and Europe have been somewhat present at recent official meetings

•! Official parties in Africa and Europe not speaking with one voice on role of

CSOs

Broadening participation beyond the commissions

Challenges for EESC

•! Integration of the EESC as an institutional actor in

the JAES: how to connect to other EU civil society

organizations while keeping the institutional

character?

•! How to jointly work with other actors (i.e. parliament,

council, etc.) to maximize impact on JAES-related

issues?

•! Positioning the EESC to play a role in some of the

thematic issues of the JAES (i.e. MDGs, migration)

What are some critical dates

•! 27th of April – EU-Africa Ministerial Troika (agenda will be Summit and Next

Action Plan priorities/focus)

•! Now and October (next meetings of Joint Expert Groups for each partnership

to discuss “deliverables for summit” and “next action plan)

•! June – College to College Meeting

•! June 2010 Africa-EU civil society dialogue*

•! September 2010 - Joint Africa-EU Task Force

•! October 2010 – EU Africa Ministerial Troika (decision of next Action Plan

focus to present to Summit)

More Information

•! EARN members will be happy to engage today or after

(as@ecdpm.org, fa@ecdpm.org, ff@ecdpm.org)

•! ECDPM will continue to monitor implementation of the JAES and

provide independent knowledge and facilitation support to

interested African and European stakeholders when invited

•! More independent information, official information and analysis on

the Joint Africa-EU Strategy at: http://europafrique.net

•! ECDPM also published 10 times a year the Europafrica.net

bulletin – also EESC is welcome to give us relevant material to

include