A summit mired in controversy

Two MEPs discuss EU-Africa relations.

Ana Gomes

The forthcoming EU-Africa summit is a priority for the Portuguese presidency and the European Commission. Migration, climate change, energy, terrorism and the impact of emerging powers are compelling Europeans to rethink the way they look at the African continent: Africa’s success stories and extraordinary potential must be recognised. The presidency’s advocacy for moving beyond the post-colonial paradigm is timely.

Preparations were overshadowed by loads of ink spilled on the attendance of Robert Mugabe and the UK ‘ultimatum’. Despite the fact that Mugabe will not be the only oppressive and corrupt ruler at the table, his distinction from other human rights violators - such as the leaders of Sudan, Eritrea, Libya and , Ethiopia and Guinea-Conakry to name just a few - stems from a common position adopted by all EU governments in 2002, imposing travel restrictions.

Sanctions are meant to cast opprobrium on their targets. But that has been undermined, since Mugabe was, after all, invited by Portugal to attend the summit. The Portuguese foreign minister admitted that he would rather not receive Mugabe in Lisbon, reasoning that he would steal the show. Mugabe knows that EU leaders have no escape: they are politically and legally bound to confront him. Mugabe may even outsmart them all, choosing not to come in the end: he will, in any case, have stolen the show.

Whatever happens, at the Parliamentary pre-summit, the European Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament will definitely discuss human rights and good governance - not only concerning Zimbabwe. Also in a Conference on Human Rights and Development, organised by Amnesty International with MEPs’ support, on 6 December, the stage is for African human rights defenders, such as the Sudanese Salih Mahmoud Osman, awarded the 2007 Sakharov prize.

The draft documents for the summit are full of buzzwords and jargon. But priorities are clouded. Curiously, the 50-page draft action plan reserves five pages for the partnership on science, information society and space, and the same amount for the partnership on the Millennium Developments Goals (MDG). Under this heading, MDGs, food security, health and education, each, fit into one or two pages only; and HIV/AIDS deserves no more than a couple of lines. Obviously, success cannot be measured by word length. But this does look odd.

An innovation in the joint strategy is the concept of ‘partnership’ and the recognition that it should be ‘people-centred’. Accountability depends on scrutiny by national parliaments, the European Parliament, the Pan-African Parliament and civil society. After the summit, parliamentarians, media, NGOs, academic and corporate actors must roll up their sleeves and interact to ensure that promises turn into reality. Guaranteeing financial support is especially relevant when negotiations on many EU budget lines are nearly closed.

The EU-Africa summit is not to reinvent the wheel: roadmaps and targets are already part of solemn commitments. What is missing is delivery. European 2006 aid figures show strikingly that almost one in three of announced official development assistance did not correspond to available funds. Figures were inflated by debt cancellations (mostly for Iraq and Nigeria) and aid spent within Europe on refugees and foreign students. Genuine aid goes down to 0.31% of gross national income (GNI), meaning that several targets were missed.

The EU needs to do better to have real political clout in Africa. This is crucial when China, with a supposedly ‘no-strings attached’ policy, is challenging the EU’s conditional approach. To contribute for development, good governance and global security, Europe must do more for the empowerment of women, security sector reforms and control of small arms and light weapons - the real weapons of mass destruction in Africa.

The summit’s relevance depends on political will to avoid adding to the pile of declarations that stay on paper.

• Portuguese Socialist (PES) MEP Ana Gomes is a member of the European Parliament’s committee on foreign affairs and of the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

Geoffrey Van Orden

Although the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon on 8-9 December has important and valuable components, including discussions on energy, climate change, migration, mobility and employment, the overwhelming requirement for focus on good governance has been compromised from the outset. The Portuguese presidency has been so consumed by its ambition to host the summit that it has signalled a willingness to include Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, among the invitees.

Mugabe’s brutal oppression of the Zimbabwean people is all too well known to bear repetition here. It was precisely because of his brutal regime’s record that the EU imposed targeted sanctions in 2002, including a ban on travel to Europe by key figures in the regime and their families. Likewise, the Commonwealth suspended Mugabe from membership in 2002 and he withdrew his country from the organisation two years later.

Every year since 2002, EU sanctions have been renewed. Exemptions from the visa ban may be applied for only in the most exceptional of circumstances and these could not include attendance at a meeting such as the Lisbon summit. The major issues it will address are socio-economic and there is no intention to put any pressure on Mugabe or his despotic regime.

The attitude of African governments to Mugabe is an inescapable test of their commitment to good governance. While it is known that their approach to Mugabe leaves much to be desired, we should not presume that they will allow this to undermine their stronger need for good relations with the wider international community. As recently as February 2007, concerted efforts were made to invite Mugabe to a Franco-Africa summit in Paris. Then it was claimed that his exclusion would lead to a widespread boycott of the meeting by other African nations and cause the failure of the conference. Yet in the event, the French were unwilling to break the sanctions for which they had repeatedly voted. The result was a highly successful conference attended by almost every nation in Africa.

That is why many people are bewildered by the confused and contradictory EU approach to its own sanctions policy. When the Portuguese president of the Council addressed the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament on 20 November, he prevaricated and then suggested that the Portuguese prime minister would personally invite Mugabe to the EU-Africa summit. It would of course be no less illegal for the Portuguese government to invite Mugabe than for the EU. Yet when I spoke to the Council of Ministers secretariat shortly afterwards, I was told that no application for the necessary exemption had been received. Subsequent discussions with the spokesman of the presidency revealed that an invitation had been issued to Mugabe, but that it was not until they knew if Mugabe intended to come that the Portuguese government intended to make any decision on whether to apply for an exemption. This is an appalling and unacceptable attitude.

It is precisely because I want the Lisbon summit to go ahead that I have consistently urged all member states to abide by the sanctions which they have freely imposed and freely renewed on four distinct occasions, right up to February 2007. Days before the issue of formal invitations I wrote to every head of government in the EU to urge them to make representations at the eleventh hour, and give the people of Africa a clear and unforgettable example of good governance and honesty in international relations. Instead of taking a robust, principled position at the start of preparations, the Portuguese hosts of the impending summit have equivocated at every step of the way, making themselves a spectacle to the whole world in the process. The EU cannot expect to be taken seriously if it cannot even obey its own rules, or indeed if it talks about democracy while at the same time refusing to take a stand against dictatorship.

• UK Conservative (EPP-ED) MEP Geoffrey Van Orden is a member of the European Parliament’s committee on foreign affairs and the subcommittee on security and defence.

Two MEPs discuss EU-Africa relations.

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