EU — Joint Communique Seychelles Regional Conference on Piracy

21 May 2010
The Min­is­ters of the Repub­lic of Dji­bouti, the Repub­lic of Kenya, the Repub­lic of Mau­ri­tius, the Repub­lic of Mozam­bique, the Repub­lic of Sey­chelles, the Repub­lic of South Africa and High Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the EU and the fol­low­ing inter­na­tion­al organ­i­sa­tions: AU, COMESA, IOC, INTERPOL and UNODC met in the occa­sion of the offi­cial vis­it of EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and Vice Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion Baroness Cather­ine Ash­ton to Sey­chelles, at Vic­to­ria, Sey­chelles on 21st May 2010.

Pira­cy has become again a men­ace on the high seas. The Indi­an Ocean, notably those coun­tries in the sur­round­ing region, is par­tic­u­lar­ly affect­ed. Inter­na­tion­al trade is dis­rupt­ed, secu­ri­ty is threat­ened, the region’s econ­o­my is suf­fer­ing, social devel­op­ment is endan­gered. Pira­cy is today an inter­na­tion­al prob­lem which requires a com­pre­hen­sive mul­ti­lat­er­al solution. 

The par­tic­i­pants agreed that to be effec­tive in address­ing the chal­lenge of pira­cy, the coun­tries in the region will have to act togeth­er. They agreed to forge strong region­al coop­er­a­tion because region­al sol­i­dar­i­ty is essen­tial to fight piracy.

To be effec­tive, the par­tic­i­pants agreed the need for a joined-up short, medi­um and longterm strat­e­gy. In the short-term, con­tin­u­ing deter­ring and cap­tur­ing pirates remains a pri­or­i­ty. The par­tic­i­pants recog­nised the cru­cial role the EUNAVFOR Ata­lan­ta Oper­a­tion in this regard.

In the medi­um-term, it was stressed the need to strength­en the capac­i­ties of the coun­tries in the wider region on the pros­e­cu­tion and impris­on­ment of pirates. But it was agreed that a com­pre­hen­sive strat­e­gy can only be achieved by address­ing the under­ly­ing secu­ri­ty chal­lenges and devel­op­ment caus­es behind piracy.

At their meet­ing, the part­ners agreed to fur­ther devel­op and enhance their domes­tic action plans to fight pira­cy with a view to for­mu­lat­ing a more com­pre­hen­sive, coher­ent and sus­tain­able region­al strat­e­gy to be agreed at a fur­ther min­is­te­r­i­al lev­el con­fer­ence to be con­vened in the very near future.

The EU has reit­er­at­ed its strong com­mit­ment to stand by the coun­tries in the region togeth­er with the oth­er inter­na­tion­al part­ners in order to help them to effec­tive­ly address the prob­lem of piracy.

The par­tic­i­pants agreed to meet again soon and con­tin­ue their con­cert­ed efforts for a coor­di­nat­ed inter­na­tion­al action for sus­tain­able solu­tions on piracy. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union