European Commissioners to meet African counterparts in Addis Ababa

(28/09/2006)

The European Commission (EC) and the African Union Commission (AUC) will meet for a joint working session at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on Monday 2nd October 2006. The meeting, the third joint session in three years, will be the first ever meeting of the EC on another continent other than Europe. Travelling to the meeting in Ethiopian will be ten of the EC Commissioners including President José Manuel Barroso, all three vice-Presidents Margot Wallström (Communication), Franco Frattini (Justice, Freedom and Security) and Siim Kallas (Administration) and Commissioners Louis Michel (Development and Humanitarian Aid), Peter Mandelson (Trade), Dalia Grybauskaité (Budget), Janez Potocnik (Research), Markos Kyprianou (Health), Laszlo Kovács (Taxation), Vladimir Spidla (Employment and Social Affairs) and Andris Piebalgs (Energy).

The session will focus on institutional partnership and development, with reviews of the EU Strategy for Africa and the EU-Africa Partnership on Infrastructure. Also under discussion will be the better management of migration flows for the benefit of both continents while a series of ‘Commissioner to Commissioner’ meetings will allow the exchange of experiences within the respective areas of responsibility, such as health and employment.

The EC and AUC will also seek to strengthen their institutional ties, with a Memorandum of Understanding to structure an exchange of officials and trainees between the two institutions, and an agreement on a first large support programme of €55 million from 1^st January 2007 for the AU’s operational and institutional development.

During their stay in Ethiopia, the European Commissioners will also visit projects in the region that receive funding assistance from the EU.

ENDS