EU/Südafrika

16 Jan­u­ary 2009

With­in the frame­work of the South Africa- Euro­pean Union Strate­gic Part­ner­ship, the eighth Min­is­te­r­i­al Troi­ka was held in Klein­mond, South Africa, on 16 Jan­u­ary 2009. The meet­ing was co-chaired by H.E Dr Nkosazana DLAMINI ZUMA, Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs of South Africa, and H.E. Mr Karel SCHWARZENBERG, Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs of the Czech Repub­lic and Pres­i­dent of the Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union. 

The South African del­e­ga­tion also includ­ed Mr Mar­t­i­nus VAN SCHALKWYK, Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­men­tal Affairs and Tourism, Mr Man­disi MPAHLWA, Min­is­ter of Trade and Indus­try, Dr Rob DAVIES, Deputy Min­is­ter of Trade and Indus­try, and Mr Nhlanhla NENE, Deputy Min­is­ter of Finance.

The EU Troi­ka del­e­ga­tion includ­ed Mr Louis MICHEL, Com­mis­sion­er for Devel­op­ment and Human­i­tar­i­an Aid of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion and Mr Joakim STYMNE, State Sec­re­tary for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion of Sweden.

1. BILATERAL RELATIONS
Imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint Action Plan of the SA-EU Strate­gic Part­ner­ship Min­is­ters reaf­firmed their com­mon com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing peace, secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty in the world, and in Africa in par­tic­u­lar. Min­is­ters wel­comed that the first SA-EU Sum­mit, which took place on the 25th of July 2008 in Bor­deaux, pro­vid­ed a land­mark in EU-South Africa rela­tions and ele­vat­ed the Strate­gic Part­ner­ship to the high­est polit­i­cal lev­el. Fur­ther, they not­ed the out­comes of the meet­ing of the Joint Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil of 3 and 4 Novem­ber 2008. In this con­text, Min­is­ters took stock of the broad range of areas of coop­er­a­tion between South Africa and the Euro­pean Union.

Min­is­ters not­ed the ongo­ing coop­er­a­tion on ener­gy mat­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the area of clean coal tech­nol­o­gy and car­bon cap­ture and stor­age. Min­is­ters wel­comed the Terms of Ref­er­ence defin­ing the scope and objec­tives of the SA-EU Ener­gy Dia­logue Forum as agreed in Decem­ber 2008. The first meet­ing of the Ener­gy Dia­logue Forum should take place dur­ing the Czech Pres­i­den­cy of the Coun­cil of the EU.

Min­is­ters recalled the Bor­deaux Sum­mit state­ment for Par­ties to ini­ti­ate bilat­er­al SA-EU nego­ti­a­tions to adapt exist­ing air ser­vices agree­ments between South Africa and the EU Mem­ber States in order to bring them into con­for­mi­ty with com­mu­ni­ty law on the sin­gle avi­a­tion mar­ket in the EU, and that dis­cus­sions on coop­er­a­tion on broad­er trans­port issues will con­tin­ue in par­al­lel to these dis­cus­sions. In this regard, Min­is­ters not­ed the impact assess­ment being car­ried out by South Africa.

Min­is­ters encour­aged fur­ther tech­ni­cal con­tacts between the com­pe­tent depart­ments and endorsed the Terms of Ref­er­ence defin­ing the scope and objec­tives of the SA-EU Mar­itime Trans­port Dialogue. 

Min­is­ters wel­comed the struc­tured bilat­er­al dia­logues that have been estab­lished. In this con­text they endorsed agreed Terms of Ref­er­ence for bilat­er­al dia­logue and coop­er­a­tion on ener­gy, space, migra­tion, health and mar­itime trans­port. In this regard, Min­is­ters issued a Dec­la­ra­tion on Deep­en­ing Pol­i­cy Dia­logues and Coop­er­a­tion in the Con­text of the SA-EU Strate­gic Partnership.

Fur­ther­more, Min­is­ters wel­comed ongo­ing work to estab­lish struc­tured dia­logues in social issues, infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion tech­nol­o­gy and edu­ca­tion and train­ing. Min­is­ters fur­ther recalled the desire to deep­en coop­er­a­tion in oth­er areas agreed upon with a view to ful­ly imple­ment­ing the TDCA and the Joint Action Plan of the SA-EU Strate­gic Partnership.

It was fur­ther agreed to hold a first meet­ing between South Africa and the EU Polit­i­cal and Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee (PSC) in a troi­ka for­mat dur­ing the Czech Pres­i­den­cy of the Coun­cil of the EU.

2nd SA-EU Sum­mit
The Par­ties agreed to hold the sec­ond sum­mit in South Africa dur­ing the sec­ond half of 2009 under the Swedish Pres­i­den­cy of the Coun­cil of the EU.

2. REGIONAL & GLOBAL ISSUES

EU-SADC Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment
Min­is­ters reit­er­at­ed the objec­tive that the SADC-EU EPA nego­ti­a­tions sup­port region­al inte­gra­tion and devel­op­ment in South­ern Africa. They also agreed that South Africa and the EU should inten­si­fy their coop­er­a­tion and address issues to ensure a con­clu­sion to the EPA that is accept­able to the par­ties. In this regard, they agreed that both sides should con­sid­er the impli­ca­tions of the EPA on cur­rent process­es of region­al inte­gra­tion in SADC. They agreed that both sides should seek to find mutu­al­ly accept­able solu­tions to the con­cerns raised in the nego­ti­a­tions. South Africa and the EU remain com­mit­ted to reach an out­come that con­sol­i­dates SACU’s com­mon exter­nal tar­iff, which con­sti­tutes the essen­tial under­pin­ning for the prop­er func­tion­ing of the cus­toms union.

Glob­al Finan­cial Cri­sis
Min­is­ters expressed their con­cern at the glob­al finan­cial cri­sis, and affirmed that all efforts should be made to reduce the neg­a­tive impact of the cri­sis on the devel­op­ing world, and espe­cial­ly Africa. 

Min­is­ters dis­cussed the cur­rent finan­cial cri­sis and its impact on the glob­al econ­o­my in gen­er­al, and on the economies of Africa and the EU in par­tic­u­lar. They not­ed with con­cern that the neg­a­tive impacts of the cri­sis are like­ly to wors­en the macro­eco­nom­ic fun­da­men­tals of African economies; exac­er­bate the impact of the recent food price cri­sis, and reverse the attain­ment of the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals.

Min­is­ters agreed that inter­na­tion­al finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty requires a more effi­cient, coher­ent and ade­quate­ly reg­u­lat­ed inter­na­tion­al finan­cial sys­tem. Min­is­ters wel­comed the out­come Dec­la­ra­tion doc­u­ment of the G20 Sum­mit in Wash­ing­ton which calls for a com­pre­hen­sive reform of the Bret­ton Woods Insti­tu­tions and reaf­firms the devel­op­ment assis­tance com­mit­ments made and the impor­tance of achiev­ing the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals.

Min­is­ters called for a bet­ter African rep­re­sen­ta­tion in inter­na­tion­al efforts and fora to ensure that the inter­ests and needs of African coun­tries are duly tak­en into account.

Min­is­ters there­fore wel­comed glob­al­ly coor­di­nat­ed efforts to review the inter­na­tion­al finan­cial and mon­e­tary archi­tec­ture and glob­al eco­nom­ic gov­er­nance. In this respect Min­is­ters stressed the impor­tance of joint­ly address­ing these issues in the con­text of the next G‑20 meet­ing in April 2009.

Envi­ron­ment and Cli­mate Change
Min­is­ters re-empha­sised the issue of glob­al cli­mate change and the need to address the issue as a mat­ter of urgency. It was again high­light­ed that Africa is one of the regions most vul­ner­a­ble to cli­mate change and that it was essen­tial to redou­ble efforts to mit­i­gate the con­se­quences on the devel­op­ing world in gen­er­al and Africa in par­tic­u­lar. In this regard it was acknowl­edged that the impact of cli­mate change would have seri­ous impli­ca­tions for meet­ing the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals and for food and water secu­ri­ty for the peo­ple on the African continent.

Min­is­ters not­ed the Joint Africa-EU Dec­la­ra­tion on Cli­mate Change and stressed the impor­tance of har­mon­is­ing and align­ing this ini­tia­tive with already exist­ing cli­mate change process­es with­in AMCEN (The African Min­is­te­r­i­al Con­fer­ence on Envi­ron­ment). Fur­ther­more, they not­ed that the EU-Africa Min­is­ters of Envi­ron­ment meet­ing is sched­uled to take place in Feb­ru­ary 2009 on the mar­gins of the UNEP Gov­ern­ing Coun­cil meet­ing in Nairo­bi, Kenya. 

Imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint Africa-EU Strat­e­gy
Min­is­ters wel­comed progress made in the imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint Africa-EU Strat­e­gy and its first Action Plan (2008–2010) and in par­tic­u­lar, com­mend­ed the Joint Experts Groups for the work done so far. The EU wel­comed South Africa’s active involve­ment in the imple­men­ta­tion of the First Action Plan of the Joint Strat­e­gy. Min­is­ters called on all par­ties to expe­dite efforts with a view to attain­ing tan­gi­ble results with­in the time­frame of the first Action Plan, par­tic­u­lar­ly the elab­o­ra­tion of roadmaps with con­crete timeta­bles for the sec­ond meet­ings of the Joint Expert Groups. Min­is­ters also stressed the need for ade­quate finan­cial resources to effec­tive­ly imple­ment the First Action Plan and in this regard called on both par­ties to inten­si­fy efforts to iden­ti­fy finan­cial require­ments, sources of fund­ing and pro­ce­dures for access­ing these finan­cial instru­ments. They more­over under­lined the neces­si­ty to involve Region­al Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ties (RECs), Non State Actors, Par­lia­ments and the Pri­vate Sec­tor in the imple­men­ta­tion of the partnership.

Food Secu­ri­ty
Min­is­ters expressed con­cern at the ongo­ing glob­al food cri­sis, and agreed on the need to fur­ther strength­en the agri­cul­tur­al sec­tors in Africa and the devel­op­ing world in gen­er­al as a long-term response to the cri­sis. In this regard, Min­is­ters wel­comed the estab­lish­ment of the € 1 bil­lion Food Facil­i­ty for a response to the food cri­sis in devel­op­ing countries.

3. PEACE & SECURITY ISSUES

Zim­bab­we
The meet­ing exchanged views on the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Zim­bab­we. Min­is­ters expressed their con­cern at the pre­vail­ing sit­u­a­tion and its neg­a­tive impact both on the Zim­bab­wean pop­u­la­tion and on the sub-region.

Min­is­ters in par­tic­u­lar expressed con­cern over the ongo­ing cholera epi­dem­ic, its con­se­quences for the affect­ed both in Zim­bab­we and in neigh­bour­ing areas. In this regard, they would wel­come increased coop­er­a­tion between the Zim­bab­wean author­i­ties and the inter­na­tion­al community.

Min­is­ters expressed grave con­cern at the ongo­ing vio­lence and abduc­tions and recog­nised that a polit­i­cal solu­tion to Zimbabwe’s prob­lems is crit­i­cal to bring­ing an end to this cycle. 

They called on the Zim­bab­wean par­ties to act with urgency and coop­er­ate in good faith towards the suc­cess­ful con­clu­sion of the nego­ti­a­tion on the basis of the 15 Sep­tem­ber Pow­er Shar­ing Agree­ment and avoid uni­lat­er­al deci­sions which con­tra­dict the spir­it of the Agree­ment. Min­is­ters observed that the Agree­ment can extri­cate Zim­bab­we from its cur­rent socio-eco­nom­ic chal­lenges. In this respect, they urged SADC and AU to per­sist in their efforts sup­port­ing nego­ti­a­tions that should reflect the will and choice of the Zim­bab­wean peo­ple as expressed in the 29 March 2008 elections.

Great Lakes Region
Min­is­ters exchanged views on the lat­est devel­op­ments in the DRC with a par­tic­u­lar focus on the cur­rent con­flict and insta­bil­i­ty in the East­ern DRC and called for a cease­fire between the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Forces for the Lib­er­a­tion of Rwan­da (FDLR), the Mai-Mai mili­tia, Le Con­grès Nation­al pour la Défense du Peu­ple (CNDP) and Les Forces armées de la République Démoc­ra­tique du Con­go (FARDC) in order to allow human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance to the grow­ing num­ber of dis­placed peo­ple. They con­demned the human rights vio­la­tions and crimes com­mit­ted against civil­ians by all par­ties, in par­tic­u­lar by the Lord’s Resis­tance Army (LRA). The Par­ties sup­port­ed region­al, con­ti­nen­tal and inter­na­tion­al efforts to find a last­ing polit­i­cal solu­tion for peace, sta­bil­i­ty and devel­op­ment in the East­ern DRC and the Great Lakes Region, based on the Nairo­bi com­mu­niqué and Goma Peace Agreement.

Min­is­ters expressed sup­port for the Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil (UNSC) Res­o­lu­tions in efforts to secure peace in the DRC and wel­comed the renew­al of MONUC’s man­date for anoth­er year, as well as the clear pri­or­i­ties set for the mis­sion by Res­o­lu­tion 1856, includ­ing the pro­tec­tion of civilians.

Sudan
Min­is­ters under­lined the need for all Par­ties to urgent­ly engage in an inclu­sive polit­i­cal process to find a last­ing solu­tion to the Dar­fur con­flict and to ensure full respect for human­i­tar­i­an law and human­i­tar­i­an access. Min­is­ters wel­comed the efforts of the Joint UN-AU Chief Medi­a­tor, Djib­ril Bas­solé, and the Qatari spon­sored peace ini­tia­tive. Min­is­ters called upon the Gov­ern­ment of the Sudan (GoS) and the Dar­fur armed groups to com­mit with­out delay to a last­ing cease­fire and a cease­fire mon­i­tor­ing mech­a­nism with sup­port of the UNAMID. They called for con­crete fol­low-up and imple­men­ta­tion of the Sudanese People’s Ini­tia­tive com­mit­ments to fur­ther peace in Dar­fur. Min­is­ters agreed to work close­ly togeth­er for an ear­ly res­o­lu­tion of the con­flict in Dar­fur and the pro­mo­tion of long-last­ing peace and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in Sudan as a whole. Min­is­ters empha­sised the neces­si­ty of putting an end to impuni­ty in Darfur. 

Min­is­ters under­lined the strate­gic impor­tance of the imple­men­ta­tion of the Com­pre­hen­sive Peace Agree­ment (CPA) for the peace and secu­ri­ty of the whole of Sudan and the region. They took note of the progress made in the imple­men­ta­tion of the CPA, par­tic­u­lar­ly the appoint­ment of mem­bers of the Nation­al Elec­toral Com­mis­sion. They fur­ther expressed their sup­port for the estab­lish­ment of the Abyei admin­is­tra­tion in line with the Road Map for the return of Inter­nal­ly Dis­placed People’s and the imple­men­ta­tion of the Abyei Pro­to­col. Min­is­ters stressed the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the par­ties to the CPA for the full imple­men­ta­tion of the peace agreement.

Min­is­ters not­ed the exist­ing cas­es before the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court (ICC) per­tain­ing to Sudan and the Dar­fur con­flict. The EU stressed the inde­pen­dence of the ICC and its role to pro­mote inter­na­tion­al jus­tice. South Africa and the EU would work to reduce to a min­i­mum any neg­a­tive impact there might be, stem­ming from an approval by the Pre-Tri­al Cham­ber of the appli­ca­tion by the ICC Chief Pros­e­cu­tor, on efforts being made towards peace in Darfur.

Soma­lia
Min­is­ters com­mend­ed the con­tin­ued efforts of the UN to bring about peace in Soma­lia. They stressed their sup­port for the Dji­bouti Process that remains a viable way to pro­vide peace and secu­ri­ty for Soma­lia. In this regard, they wel­comed the sign­ing of the doc­u­ments on Modal­i­ties for the Imple­men­ta­tion of the Ces­sa­tion of Armed Con­fronta­tion and a Joint Dec­la­ra­tion on Com­mon Polit­i­cal Aims by the Tran­si­tion­al Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment (TFG) and the Alliance for the Re-lib­er­a­tion of Soma­lia (ARS) on 26 Octo­ber 2008. Min­is­ters not­ed the recent res­ig­na­tion of the Pres­i­dent of Soma­lia and urged all Soma­lis to pur­sue an all-inclu­sive nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process and in this regard called on all Soma­li stake­hold­ers to resolve the issues of con­cern accord­ing to the Tran­si­tion­al Fed­er­al Charter.

Min­is­ters also expressed sup­port for the strength­en­ing of the African Union Mis­sion in Soma­lia (AMISOM) and called for more con­tri­bu­tions to the mis­sion whose role will be cru­cial fol­low­ing the with­draw­al of Ethiopi­an troops.

Min­is­ters denounced the pre­vail­ing pira­cy sit­u­a­tion on Soma­li shores and wel­comed the involve­ment of the EU and oth­er coun­tries in deal­ing with pira­cy in accor­dance with rel­e­vant UNSC Res­o­lu­tions, and the suc­cess­ful naval mis­sions car­ried out by Oper­a­tion Ata­lan­ta in Decem­ber 2008 along the Soma­li coast­line. How­ev­er, the issue of pira­cy is part of the con­tin­u­ing polit­i­cal cri­sis in Soma­lia, which should be dealt with for the achieve­ment of a long-last­ing sus­tain­able res­o­lu­tion to the prob­lem of piracy. 

In this regard, Min­is­ters wel­comed the estab­lish­ment of the UN Con­tact Group on Pira­cy off the Coast of Soma­lia on 14 Jan­u­ary 2009 and not­ed that pira­cy is a symp­tom of a wider lack of secu­ri­ty and rule of law in Soma­lia and con­tin­ues to con­sti­tute a threat to region­al sta­bil­i­ty. Fur­ther­more, pira­cy is symp­to­matic of the over­all sit­u­a­tion in Soma­lia, and they not­ed that the Group con­clud­ed that the preva­lence of ille­gal fish­ing and tox­ic waste dump­ing off the coast of Soma­lia adverse­ly affects the Soma­li econ­o­my and marine environment.

The par­ties deplored the human­i­tar­i­an sit­u­a­tion in Soma­lia and called on the par­ties to the Soma­li con­flict to take all nec­es­sary mea­sures to pro­tect civil­ians and respect inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law and human rights.

Mid­dle East Peace Process
Min­is­ters are deeply con­cerned over con­tin­u­ing vio­lence in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and espe­cial­ly the human­i­tar­i­an tragedy and the suf­fer­ing of ordi­nary cit­i­zens. Min­is­ters stressed the urgency of a halt to rock­et attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli mil­i­tary action. They not­ed with grave con­cern the inor­di­nate­ly high casu­al­ty rate of women and chil­dren in this con­flict, as well as the use of incen­di­ary weapons in dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed areas. Min­is­ters fur­ther not­ed with con­cern the recent attacks on UN build­ings and human­i­tar­i­an con­voy and called for a strict respect for inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an law.

Not­ing that a dire human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis had exist­ed in Gaza even before the lat­est con­flict, Min­is­ters pledged to redou­ble their efforts to assist the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple. Only a full and imme­di­ate cease­fire will allow the deliv­ery and dis­tri­b­u­tion of the large quan­ti­ties of human­i­tar­i­an aid that Gaza des­per­ate­ly needs and for the resump­tion of basic services.

Min­is­ters strong­ly believe that a viable Gaza econ­o­my is essen­tial for a sus­tain­able peace. In this respect the Par­ties call on Israel to ful­ly open its bor­der cross­ings with Gaza to allow the resump­tion of the flow of com­mer­cial goods and people.

Min­is­ters wel­comed the adop­tion of UNSC Res­o­lu­tion 1860 (2009) and urged all par­ties to imple­ment it fully.

The meet­ing urged all Pales­tin­ian groups to con­tin­ue with their rec­on­cil­i­a­tion talks to estab­lish a Pales­tin­ian Gov­ern­ment, ful­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the aspi­ra­tions of the Pales­tin­ian people.

Both Par­ties con­tin­ued to call for the resump­tion of the nego­ti­a­tion process inau­gu­rat­ed at the Annapo­lis meet­ing in 2007 so that its goals can be realised. 

Iraq
Min­is­ters recog­nised progress made in Iraq and urged the Gov­ern­ment of Iraq to inten­si­fy efforts towards nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and nation build­ing while they expressed the hope that the Iraqi provin­cial elec­tions, sched­uled for the end of Jan­u­ary 2009, would be con­duct­ed peace­ful­ly and in a free and fair man­ner, rein­forc­ing democ­ra­cy and the rule of law. Min­is­ters not­ed the approval by the Iraqi Par­lia­ment of the With­draw­al from Iraq Act, which gov­erns the pres­ence of for­eign forces in Iraq after 31 Decem­ber 2008. Min­is­ters agreed to con­tin­ue to focus their efforts on sup­port­ing and pro­mot­ing a cen­tral role for the UN in assist­ing Iraq in accor­dance with rel­e­vant UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil resolutions.

Iran
The Par­ties exchanged views regard­ing the ongo­ing dis­pute over the Iran­ian nuclear pro­gramme and expressed their com­mit­ment towards a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion of this issue, with­in the con­text of the UNSC Res­o­lu­tions and the Inter­na­tion­al Atom­ic Ener­gy Agency. The Par­ties reaf­firmed the right of all States Par­ties to the Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion Treaty to pur­sue nuclear ener­gy for peace­ful pur­pos­es, in con­for­mi­ty with the Treaty. Min­is­ters agreed that ques­tions remain over Iran’s nuclear pro­gramme and called on Iran to ful­ly com­ply with its oblig­a­tions, UNSC Res­o­lu­tions and the IAEA.

Balka­ns
Min­is­ters recalled the impor­tance of con­sol­i­dat­ing sta­bil­i­ty and achiev­ing rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and not­ed the enhance­ment of the Euro­pean per­spec­tive in the West­ern Balka­ns. In this respect, Min­is­ters recog­nised the role of the Unit­ed Nations, the EU and of coop­er­a­tion with inter­na­tion­al part­ners. Min­is­ters wel­comed the EU‘s will­ing­ness to step up its involve­ment in Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina. The EU briefed South Africa on the suc­cess­ful launch of the rule of law mis­sion, EULEX, as part of the efforts to strength­en insti­tu­tions and the rule of law in Koso­vo. Min­is­ters encour­aged fur­ther focus­ing on the pro­tec­tion of minori­ties, the fight against cor­rup­tion and organ­ised crime, eco­nom­ic reform and the improve­ment of liv­ing conditions. 

Source:
Coun­cil Of The Euro­pean Union