EU/Afrika — 10th EU-South Africa ministerial political dialogue

The EU Del­e­ga­tion also includ­ed Mr Andris PIEBALGS, Com­mis­sion­er for Devel­op­ment of the Euro­pean Commission.

The South African del­e­ga­tion also includ­ed H.E. Dr Lindi­we SISULU, Min­is­ter of Defence and Mil­i­tary Vet­er­ans. BILATERAL RELATIONS

Imple­men­ta­tion of the SA-EU Strate­gic Partnership

South Africa and the EU stressed their con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to the EU-SA Strate­gic Part­ner­ship and to the joint pro­mo­tion of peace, secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty in the world, and in Africa in par­tic­u­lar. Both Par­ties recalled the suc­cess­ful hold­ing of the 2nd EU-SA Sum­mit on 11 Sep­tem­ber 2009 in Klein­mond, South Africa as a fur­ther impor­tant step in strength­en­ing the part­ner­ship between the EU and South Africa.

The Par­ties not­ed the entry into force of the Lis­bon Treaty on 1 Decem­ber 2009 and the hold­ing of this meet­ing at Min­is­te­r­i­al lev­el under the new insti­tu­tion­al arrange­ments estab­lished on the EU side and looked for­ward to the ongo­ing con­sol­i­da­tion of rela­tions at all levels.

The Par­ties reviewed the broad range of areas of coop­er­a­tion between South Africa and the Euro­pean Union. In par­tic­u­lar, they wel­comed progress on avi­a­tion fol­low­ing agree­ment on terms of ref­er­ence for coop­er­a­tion in this area and the recent engage­ments with a view to restor­ing legal cer­tain­ty to exist­ing bilat­er­al air ser­vices agree­ments between South Africa and EU Mem­ber States.

The Par­ties also not­ed ongo­ing exchanges under the dia­logues on migra­tion, health, envi­ron­ment, space, ICT, ener­gy and sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy. In sup­port of the full imple­men­ta­tion of the Trade and Devel­op­ment Coop­er­a­tion Agree­ment (TDCA) and the Strate­gic Part­ner­ship Joint Action Plan, they wel­comed ongo­ing work to fur­ther devel­op struc­tured dia­logues and coop­er­a­tion on edu­ca­tion and train­ing, crime and jus­tice, tax and cus­toms, as well as on employ­ment and social affairs.

The Par­ties took note of the forth­com­ing UN Review Con­fer­ence on the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals to be held in Sep­tem­ber 2010 and reit­er­at­ed their com­mit­ments to their attain­ment. In this con­text the Par­ties recalled that gen­der equal­i­ty and women empow­er­ment are essen­tial for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, pover­ty reduc­tion and for reach­ing the Mil­len­ni­um Devel­op­ment Goals.

Both Par­ties look for­ward to the 3rd SA-EU Sum­mit to be held in Brus­sels in the sec­ond half of 2010. It was recalled that the sec­ond meet­ing on peace and secu­ri­ty between South Africa and the EU Polit­i­cal and Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee (PSC), will be held in Brus­sels on 2 June 2010. The Par­ties also wel­comed the forth­com­ing Inter-Par­lia­men­tary Dia­logue meet­ing to be held in Cape Town on 25–26 May 2010. 

The Par­ties dis­cussed the cur­rent activ­i­ties of the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank (EIB) in South Africa and South­ern Africa. They wel­comed the EIB’s sup­port and com­mit­ment to South Africa’s eco­nom­ic and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment through the EIB’s cur­rent €900 mil­lion man­date for South Africa for the peri­od 2007–13. Both Par­ties not­ed the fact that a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the EIB’s cur­rent man­date has already been com­mit­ted and called for con­tin­ued sup­port by the EIB for South Africa’s devel­op­ment needs.

Polit­i­cal and insti­tu­tion­al devel­op­ments in the EU and South Africa

The meet­ing also addressed polit­i­cal and insti­tu­tion­al devel­op­ments in the EU and South Africa. In par­tic­u­lar, the EU side report­ed on progress in the imple­men­ta­tion of the exter­nal rela­tions pro­vi­sions of the Lis­bon Treaty, includ­ing the estab­lish­ment of the Euro­pean Exter­nal Action Ser­vice, which will assist the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Euro­pean Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Policy.

The Par­ties not­ed the progress in South Africa’s prepa­ra­tions for the FIFA 2010 World Cup, and encour­aged Euro­pean sup­port­ers to vis­it South African shores for the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa.

EU –SADC Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agreement

Both sides engaged in an open dis­cus­sion on the EC-SADC Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment and on the impli­ca­tions that these nego­ti­a­tions could have on cur­rent process­es of region­al inte­gra­tion in South­ern Africa. In this regard the par­ties took note of the recent com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the SACU Coun­cil of Min­is­ters to Com­mis­sion­er De Gucht and his reply. Both sides agreed to urgent­ly pur­sue the nego­ti­a­tion and res­o­lu­tion of all out­stand­ing issues with a view to a prompt and mutu­al­ly sat­is­fac­to­ry con­clu­sion that sup­ports region­al inte­gra­tion and devel­op­ment in South­ern Africa.