Third South Africa-European Union Summit — Joint Communiqué

We, the lead­ers of South Africa (SA) and the Euro­pean Union (EU), meet­ing today in Brus­sels, reaf­firm our com­mit­ment to a strate­gic part­ner­ship based on shared val­ues and inter­ests, includ­ing the pro­mo­tion of peace and secu­ri­ty, human rights, democ­ra­cy, the rule of law and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment region­al­ly and glob­al­ly.

SA-EU Strate­gic Partnership

We reviewed the rapid expan­sion of our bilat­er­al rela­tion­ship, man­i­fest­ed by a strength­ened Strate­gic Part­ner­ship and grow­ing coop­er­a­tion in an array of areas. We expressed our sat­is­fac­tion with the pos­i­tive imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint Action Plan, as well as the var­i­ous high-lev­el polit­i­cal dia­logues at Min­is­te­r­i­al, Par­lia­men­tary and senior offi­cials’ lev­el. We had fruit­ful dis­cus­sions on var­i­ous bilat­er­al, region­al and glob­al issues of com­mon inter­est and concern.

In our assess­ment of the imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint Action Plan we wel­comed in particular:

• The effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion and increased own­er­ship of the Euro­pean Union’s devel­op­ment assis­tance pro­gramme for South Africa. Annu­al dis­burse­ments were pro­ject­ed to reach €120 mil­lion in 2010.

• The sig­na­ture today of the sin­gle largest ever devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion pro­gramme between the Euro­pean Union and South Africa, a bud­get sup­port oper­a­tion to sup­port Pri­ma­ry Edu­ca­tion in South Africa, totalling €123 million.

• The excel­lent rela­tion­ship between the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank (EIB) and its South African partners.

• The high­ly suc­cess­ful coop­er­a­tion in the area of sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy and inno­va­tion, includ­ing space, as evi­denced by the “Sci­ence at the Sum­mit” pro­gramme of events organ­ised in sup­port of the Summit.

• The com­mence­ment of a Cus­toms Project by the end of 2010 in rela­tion to the estab­lish­ment of the Autho­rised Eco­nom­ic Oper­a­tor pro­gram in SA and future co-oper­a­tion aimed at facil­i­tat­ing legit­i­mate trade and com­bat­ing illic­it trade activ­i­ties between South Africa and the EU.

• Excel­lent progress in estab­lish­ing a broad rang­ing dia­logue on migra­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly on issues such as the mobil­i­ty of high­ly-skilled work­ers, brain drain and the traf­fick­ing of human beings.

• Work on the estab­lish­ment of a pol­i­cy dia­logue on high­er edu­ca­tion and train­ing before the end of 2010, and the imple­men­ta­tion of a pro­gramme of aca­d­e­m­ic exchange between South African and Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ties –“Eras­mus Mundus”- to the mutu­al ben­e­fit of a large and increas­ing num­ber of post-grad­u­ate stu­dents and academics. 

• Progress towards the estab­lish­ment of dia­logues and coop­er­a­tion on crime and jus­tice, and on employ­ment and social affairs.

• A spe­cial fund (TDCA Facil­i­ty) has been estab­lished to sup­port these dia­logues and cooperation.

Glob­al governance

We agreed to increase our joint efforts and shoul­der our respon­si­bil­i­ties to address the mul­ti­ple chal­lenges fac­ing the world. Only through a part­ner­ship of coop­er­a­tion and mutu­al respect between devel­oped and devel­op­ing coun­tries can we suc­cess­ful­ly tack­le the glob­al eco­nom­ic and finan­cial cri­sis, cli­mate change, food inse­cu­ri­ty and ener­gy scarcity.

We empha­sised the impor­tance of an effec­tive mul­ti­lat­er­al sys­tem, cen­tred on a strong Unit­ed Nations, as a key fac­tor to tack­le glob­al chal­lenges. We also reaf­firm our deter­mi­na­tion to ensure that mul­ti­lat­er­al insti­tu­tions are the main fora for inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion on peace and secu­ri­ty, human rights and democ­ra­cy. In this con­text, we rec­og­nized the need to pur­sue the reform of the main UN bod­ies includ­ing sec­re­tari­at and man­age­ment reform, with a view to mak­ing the UN sys­tem over­all more effec­tive and trans­par­ent, and reflec­tive of the sub­stan­tial changes the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and UN mem­ber­ship have undergone.

We reaf­firmed the role of the G‑20 as a key forum for glob­al eco­nom­ic coop­er­a­tion and reit­er­at­ed our com­mit­ment to work­ing in close coor­di­na­tion in the con­text of G‑20 meet­ings. We wel­comed the results of the Toron­to Sum­mit (26 and 27 June) includ­ing the need to com­plete the IMF quo­ta reform by the Seoul Sum­mit and in par­al­lel deliv­er on oth­er gov­er­nance reforms, in line with com­mit­ments made in Pitts­burgh; to achieve strong, sus­tain­able and bal­anced growth; to strength­en finan­cial reg­u­la­tion and coop­er­a­tion and to strength­en the sup­port for the most vul­ner­a­ble. The EU expressed its strong sup­port for South Africa and South Korea, in their respec­tive capac­i­ties as the Co-chairs of the G‑20 Devel­op­ment Work­ing Group, in elab­o­rat­ing a devel­op­ment agen­da and mul­ti-year action plans, with mea­sures to pro­mote eco­nom­ic growth and resilience, which are sched­uled to be adopt­ed at the forth­com­ing G‑20 Sum­mit in Seoul.

We reaf­firmed the need to ful­ly imple­ment the Toron­to agen­da and agreed that eco­nom­ic poli­cies must be con­sis­tent with the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Pitts­burgh and Lon­don G‑20 Sum­mits. This includes the pro­mo­tion of inter­na­tion­al trade and invest­ments as they are essen­tial to glob­al growth.

MDGs

We wel­comed the out­come of the UN High Lev­el Ple­nary Meet­ing on the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals (MDGs) held in New York on 20–22 Sep­tem­ber and reit­er­at­ed the shared com­mit­ment to sup­port the achieve­ment of the MDGs by 2015. We rec­og­nize that although progress has been achieved dur­ing the last decade on cer­tain MDG tar­gets, more con­cert­ed effort still needs to be applied col­lec­tive­ly to ensure the achieve­ment of the MDGs by 2015. We also note that Sub- Saha­ran Africa has seen less improve­ment than oth­er devel­op­ing regions of the world, and the sit­u­a­tion is still wor­ry­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly in Least Devel­oped Coun­tries (LDCs) and coun­tries in a sit­u­a­tion of con­flict and fragili­ty, includ­ing in those coun­tries faced with severe pover­ty and under­de­vel­op­ment. We stressed our con­cern at the mul­ti­ple and inter­re­lat­ed glob­al crises, includ­ing the finan­cial and eco­nom­ic cri­sis, the volatil­i­ty of ener­gy prices, ener­gy pover­ty, food inse­cu­ri­ty the effects of cli­mate change, pover­ty and under­de­vel­op­ment, which have an adverse impact on devel­op­ment gains and threat­en to slow down future MDG progress. 

All par­ties should now imple­ment what has been agreed in New York at the UN High Lev­el Ple­nary Meet­ing. Devel­op­ing coun­tries have the pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty towards meet­ing the MDGs, name­ly by rein­forc­ing their own­er­ship and lead­er­ship. In this regard, they also stressed the imper­a­tive need for stronger inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion and sol­i­dar­i­ty. But this will be pos­si­ble only if all part­ners in the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty demon­strate strong polit­i­cal com­mit­ment, imple­ment nec­es­sary pol­i­cy changes and take con­crete actions in the con­text of a Glob­al Part­ner­ship for Devel­op­ment. Glob­al chal­lenges call for col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­i­ty by all stake­hold­ers. In this con­text, we wel­comed the forth­com­ing estab­lish­ment of the South African Devel­op­ment Part­ner­ship Agency as a plat­form for EU-South Africa coop­er­a­tion in sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of the African con­ti­nent. In this con­text we also recog­nised the essen­tial role played by sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy as instru­ments for devel­op­ment and the con­se­quent need to strength­en the research and inno­va­tion capac­i­ties of devel­op­ing countries.

Cli­mate change

Cli­mate change is one of the most seri­ous and urgent glob­al chal­lenges, which demands a glob­al solu­tion. We reit­er­ate our com­mit­ment to work togeth­er ahead of the six­teenth Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties (COP16) of the UNFCCC in Mexico.

We recog­nise that the Copen­hagen Accord pro­vides impor­tant polit­i­cal guid­ance in the ongo­ing nego­ti­a­tions. We wel­come the com­mit­ments to tar­gets and actions put for­ward by Par­ties thus far, how­ev­er, rec­og­niz­ing that these remain insuf­fi­cient to lim­it glob­al tem­per­a­ture increas­es to less than 2 degrees centi­grade above pre-indus­tri­al lev­els. Strong action against cli­mate change is more urgent than ever, and we under­line the need to strength­en com­mit­ments in the con­text of an ambi­tious legal­ly bind­ing glob­al agree­ment, and in accor­dance with the prin­ci­ple of com­mon but dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed respon­si­bil­i­ty and respec­tive capabilities.

The EU and South Africa will strive joint­ly for an ambi­tious and com­pre­hen­sive out­come for the nego­ti­a­tions result­ing from the Ad-hoc Work­ing Group on Long-term Coop­er­a­tive Action under the UNFCCC and the Ad-hoc Work­ing Group for fur­ther com­mit­ments by Annex I Par­ties under the Kyoto Protocol.

Fast-start finance is a key ele­ment for an effec­tive result in the cli­mate change nego­ti­a­tions in Can­cun. In the Copen­hagen Accord devel­oped coun­tries col­lec­tive­ly com­mit­ted to pro­vide new and addi­tion­al resources, includ­ing forestry and invest­ments through inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions, approach­ing USD 30 bil­lion for the peri­od 2010 — 2012 with bal­anced allo­ca­tion between adap­ta­tion and mit­i­ga­tion. In this con­text the EU will deliv­er on its fast-start finance com­mit­ment of € 7.2 bil­lion in the peri­od 2010 to 2012.

The tran­si­tion to a low-car­bon econ­o­my is clear­ly iden­ti­fied as a major dri­ver of growth world­wide. In addi­tion to avoid­ing the dan­gers of cli­mate change, ben­e­fits include sav­ings in ener­gy con­sump­tion, ener­gy secu­ri­ty, new jobs, long-term ben­e­fits for inter­na­tion­al com­pet­i­tive­ness, air qual­i­ty and health. The EU is ready to sup­port devel­op­ing coun­tries in their tran­si­tion to a low­car­bon econ­o­my and in adapt­ing to cli­mate change.

The EU and South Africa will strength­en their col­lab­o­ra­tion on cli­mate change and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment with­in the con­text of the Euro­pean Commission’s devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion strat­e­gy with South Africa. 

The EU and South Africa will strive joint­ly for a bal­anced and ambi­tious out­come in Can­cun under both nego­ti­at­ing tracks, prepar­ing the ground for a suc­cess­ful Con­fer­ence of the Par­ties in South Africa in 2011. In order to achieve this, we are deter­mined to make progress in the remain­ing week of nego­ti­a­tion before Can­cun, to take place in Tian­jin, Chi­na in Octo­ber 2010.

EU-SADC EPA

We engaged in a frank and open dis­cus­sion on the EU-SADC Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment. We empha­sised the shared objec­tive to con­clude by the end of the year a final EPA that enhances the trade and eco­nom­ic rela­tions between the EU and the SADC EPA coun­tries and sup­ports sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and region­al inte­gra­tion in South­ern Africa. In this regard, we wel­comed the ambi­tious timetable of nego­ti­a­tions planned for the com­ing weeks and urged both sides to reach by year end a mutu­al­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry con­clu­sion of all remain­ing issues.

Peace and Security/Regional Issues

South Africa and the EU strong­ly sup­port­ed the inclu­sion of the Respon­si­bil­i­ty to Pro­tect con­cept in the 2005 World Sum­mit Out­come Doc­u­ment. It rec­og­nizes the respon­si­bil­i­ty of each indi­vid­ual State to pro­tect its pop­u­la­tion from geno­cide, war crimes, eth­nic cleans­ing and crimes against human­i­ty. In 2005, we also col­lec­tive­ly recog­nised the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, through the Unit­ed Nations, to help pro­tect pop­u­la­tions from such crimes. South Africa and the EU con­sid­er it nec­es­sary to con­tin­ue to advo­cate for R2P to become an accept­ed inter­na­tion­al norm and guid­ing prin­ci­ple and con­sid­er its pre­ven­tive ethos a duty for all.

Region­al organ­i­sa­tions are key build­ing blocks for the devel­op­ment of glob­al gov­er­nance and are often best placed to pre­vent, medi­ate and respond to chal­lenges to peace and secu­ri­ty. As such South Africa and the EU con­sid­er that region­al organ­i­sa­tions have a par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant role to play regard­ing the oper­a­tional­i­sa­tion of the respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty needs to fur­ther strength­en the nec­es­sary and appro­pri­ate tools, includ­ing ear­ly warn­ing and assess­ment, to live up to this respon­si­bil­i­ty. South Africa and the EU will con­tin­ue their efforts to put this into prac­tice, in their bilat­er­al con­tacts, at the UN and with the African Union.

We reaf­firmed that the fight against impuni­ty is a com­mon endeav­our, anchored in our com­mon val­ues. In this con­text, we con­sid­er that the Rome Statute and the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court (ICC) con­sti­tute an impor­tant devel­op­ment for inter­na­tion­al jus­tice and a basis to advance peace. We reit­er­ate the impor­tance of the inde­pen­dence and integri­ty of the ICC and all of its organs.

Sudan

We stressed the con­tin­ued need for all actors to ful­ly respect the CPA and to pur­sue con­fi­dence build­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly with regard to the upcom­ing ref­er­en­dum in South Sudan and in the nego­ti­a­tions over the post-ref­er­en­dum issues, which would allow for the full imple­men­ta­tion of the CPA, in par­tic­u­lar the final­iza­tion of the bor­der demar­ca­tion between North and South Sudan and the orga­ni­za­tion of the Abyei referendum. 

We wel­comed the launch of the nego­ti­a­tions on post-ref­er­en­dum issues by the NCP and the SPLM and called on the Sudanese actors to strive for inclu­sive­ness in this process.

We wel­comed the estab­lish­ment of the South Sudan ref­er­en­dum com­mis­sion in view of prepar­ing the ref­er­en­dum in South Sudan in Jan­u­ary 2011 and urged all actors to expe­dite fur­ther prepara­to­ry work, in par­tic­u­lar with regard to vot­er registration.

We stressed the need for trans­par­ent and cred­i­ble ref­er­en­da in South Sudan and Abyei which clear­ly reflect the will of the peo­ple and whose out­come will be accept­able to all.

The EU informed about its inten­tion to deploy an EU elec­tion observ­er mis­sion for the ref­er­en­dum on South Sudan’s self-deter­mi­na­tion which was wel­comed by the South African side. South Africa, on its part will be guid­ed by the African Union and will sup­port any AU observ­er mis­sion to the referendum.

We stressed the impor­tance of a close AU-EU coop­er­a­tion and wel­comed the key role tak­en on by the African Union High Lev­el Imple­men­ta­tion Pan­el for Sudan (AUHIP), led by for­mer South African Pres­i­dent Thabo Mbe­ki and pledged con­tin­ued sup­port for its work.

Zim­bab­we

We not­ed the EU’s recent meet­ing with a Zim­bab­wean Min­is­te­r­i­al del­e­ga­tion and called for the EUZ­im­bab­we polit­i­cal dia­logue to be inten­si­fied. South Africa and SADC were com­mend­ed for their con­tin­ued efforts and encour­aged to remain seized with the process.

Dur­ing an exchange of views on polit­i­cal devel­op­ments in Zim­bab­we, we not­ed a num­ber of pos­i­tive devel­op­ments in the imple­men­ta­tion of the Glob­al Polit­i­cal Agree­ment while also recog­nis­ing some impor­tant chal­lenges. We call upon the Inclu­sive Gov­ern­ment to ful­ly imple­ment the GPA as a mat­ter of urgency. The com­ple­men­tary efforts of South Africa and the EU aimed at pro­mot­ing and sup­port­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the Glob­al Polit­i­cal Agree­ment was not­ed and should be strengthened.

We recog­nise and appre­ci­ate the human­i­tar­i­an and oth­er assis­tance that the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to pro­vide to the peo­ple of Zimbabwe.

Both par­ties will fol­low with great inter­est the ongo­ing Con­sti­tu­tion­al reform process and the prepa­ra­tions for the upcom­ing elections.

Third Africa-EU Summit

We express our joint com­mit­ment towards a suc­cess­ful 3rd Africa-EU Sum­mit on 29–30 Novem­ber 2010, and to the val­ued strate­gic part­ner­ship between Africa and Europe. 

The Sum­mit is a unique and time­ly oppor­tu­ni­ty to address the issue of invest­ment, eco­nom­ic growth and job cre­ation, to dis­cuss on the high­est polit­i­cal lev­el the new inter­na­tion­al chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that have arisen since 2007, and to agree on appro­pri­ate joint actions. The Sum­mit should also take stock of the achieve­ments of the Joint Strat­e­gy and its first Action Plan (2008–10), and dis­cuss the way for­ward regard­ing its improved imple­men­ta­tion on the basis of the Action Plan for 2011–13 which the Sum­mit will adopt. The Strat­e­gy is impor­tant as a polit­i­cal frame­work to strength­en coop­er­a­tion between Africa and Europe, par­tic­u­lar­ly on the advance­ment of our joint devel­op­ment agen­da and the attain­ment of the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals (MDGs), on peace and secu­ri­ty issues, and on glob­al chal­lenges such as the eco­nom­ic cri­sis, ener­gy and cli­mate change. Final­ly, it is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand our promis­ing coop­er­a­tion in areas such as S&T, ICTs and Space, migra­tion and mobil­i­ty, or demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nance and Human Rights.

The active par­tic­i­pa­tion of all stake­hold­ers includ­ing, Region­al Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ties (RECs), Par­lia­ments, the Pri­vate Sec­tor and Civ­il Soci­ety remains essen­tial for the effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of this ambi­tious inter­con­ti­nen­tal partnership.

We fur­ther express our joint com­mit­ment towards tan­gi­ble results of the part­ner­ship, includ­ing through enhanced bilat­er­al polit­i­cal and pol­i­cy dia­logue, as well as bet­ter coor­di­na­tion in the UN and in oth­er inter­na­tion­al bod­ies. We express our active sup­port of the African region­al and con­ti­nen­tal inte­gra­tion agenda.

We reit­er­ate that the peace and secu­ri­ty of the African con­ti­nent are intrin­si­cal­ly tied to sus­tain­able social and eco­nom­ic development.

South Africa expressed its appre­ci­a­tion to the EU for its hos­pi­tal­i­ty dur­ing this Sum­mit and both sides look for­ward to our next Sum­mit to be held in South Africa in 2011. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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