The sixth African-European summit will be held this year under the title: “Africa and Europe… Two Continents with a Common Vision until 2030.” Its first session was held in Cairo in 2000, which witnessed the establishment of mechanisms for participation between the two sides through the “Cairo Action Plan”.
Many leaders and leaders flocked to Brussels to attend the summit meetings, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The spokesman for his country’s presidency said that focus will be on various issues of concern to African countries, especially with regard to strengthening international efforts to facilitate their integration into the global economy.
According to the agenda published on the European Union website, the summit is a unique opportunity to lay the foundations for the renewal and deepening of the partnership between the African Union and the European Union with the highest political participation of leaders and heads of government from both sides, based on trust and a clear understanding of common interests.
The European-African summit is scheduled to discuss a number of files; Chief among them: financing growth, health systems and vaccine production in the wake of the Corona pandemic, as well as agriculture and sustainable development, education, culture, vocational training, migration and mobility, private sector support and economic integration, peace, security and governance, ending with climate change.
Lots of challenges
For his part, the former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Mohamed Hegazy, said in statements to “Sky News Arabia” that the convening of the sixth session of the Summit of Partnership between the African and European Unions comes at a very important time, as the continent faces many development, economic and health challenges with The threat of climate change issues is increasing.
Hegazy pointed out that the Brussels Summit seeks to unify the visions between the African continent and the European continent, as the most important partner in various development and economic issues, as well as in all issues of peace and security, as well as development and health challenges facing the continent.
He stressed that this awaited summit comes mainly to discuss a number of issues and topics of interest to the African continent to integrate the African economy into the global economy, with European efforts and support for the continent’s economies and support for development plans to help them achieve sustainable development goals.
He explained that investment support issues will be strongly present in this conference, which seeks to achieve a goal related to a huge European investment in the African continent, in addition to issues of technology transfer and interdependence on renewable energy.
the climate
The climate summit has a large presence at the summit of the Partnership between Europe and Africa, especially in light of the great risks that developing countries suffer from the negative repercussions of climate change.
All African countries seek to stress the need for developed countries to fulfill their commitments related to financing climate issues to the countries of the continent.
The Egyptian diplomat said, “Climate issues are one of the most important issues raised at the Partnership Summit in Brussels, and it is known that Egypt has become one of the central countries in international dealing with climate issues, especially as it speaks on behalf of Africa and hosts the COP27 summit in November.”
He pointed out that the Egyptian president, as the head of the upcoming climate summit, will speak clearly about the challenges the continent is facing as a result of climate change, which pay hefty prices than the advanced industrial countries, which are primarily responsible for climate pollution and heat emissions, and there will also be a demand for the industrial community. The European leader, especially in Europe, supports the continent and adheres to its commitments, especially at the Paris Summit 2017.
The demands of Africa and the developing world form a cornerstone of the discussion, with Europe’s commitment to its commitments discussed for a common vision of climate issues at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.
Corona pandemic
The issue of dealing with the Corona pandemic is a priority on the summit agenda, especially with the World Health Organization confirming the existence of problems in the surveillance systems on the continent and the scarcity of examination equipment, which made it likely that the actual number of infections in African countries would be 7 times higher than the announced numbers.
Ambassador Hegazy says that the health situation in the continent requires the exchange of techniques and technologies and the localization of the vaccine industry. Indeed, some of the developed countries of the continent have moved towards this, as Cairo agreed with Beijing to localize the vaccine industry to support its health capabilities and support its African continent.