Speech by Commissioner Michel - Africa is taking giant steps towards regional integration

Summary: June 2, 2005: Speech by Louis Michel, Commissaire européen au Développement et à l'Aide humanitaire, «Africa is taking giant steps towards regional integration» at Summit of Heads of State and Government of COMESA (Kigali, Rwanda)

Africa is taking giant steps towards regional integration

Your Excellency, M. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda and Chairman of COMESA,
Your Majesty Mswati the Third, King of Swaziland,
Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government,
the President of the African Union,
the Secretary General of COMESA,
Ministers,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour and pleasure to be here today.

In recent years, Africa has given us tangible proofs that the continent is changing. It has developed powerful leadership and strong institutions, and the African Union Commission is gearing up to become the locomotive for integration within Africa. Africa has taken giant steps to further its political and economic integration. It has constructed a continental organisation, with an imagination and creativity that know no precedent. And I would like to seize the occasion to commend President Obasanjo and the African Union Commission's President Konaré for their leadership.

Such construction, however, can not hold alone. The African house needs to be set on solid regional building blocks. There will be no continental integration without strong and ambitious sub-regional organisations.

This is why I am very pleased to see the high level of representation of the COMESA member states at this Summit. It demonstrates that regional integration is taking its rightful place in the political agendas of the African countries. Regional integration, as you know, is also central in the European Union political agenda. It has brought my continent stability and prosperity, and it is therefore that you can fully count on the EU support you in your integration process. I do this together with my colleague Peter Mandelson, the Commissioner for Foreign Trade, who would have wanted to be here today but had to apologize. So, part of the message I will be giving you today is on his behalve.

Excellencies,

Many of your countries are relatively small by world trading standards, many are also landlocked states. These characteristics imply a serious challenge in the current globalisation trend. The EU response in the past was to open our markets to Africa more than to any other part of the world. We have put in place the Cotonou preferences, as well as Everything But Arms for the LDCs. The result is that African exporters today pay full duty on less than 3% of imports into the EU. The remaining 97% enter at zero duty or at very reduced rates of duty. By the way, there are no duties levied on coffee, whether processed or not, coming from African countries, including from the Middle Income Countries among you.

But this is not enough. How do we now go beyond this?

First, the EU wants to enhance the development dimension of the multilateral trading system, through the Doha Development Round, with a special emphasis on Africa.

Secondly, we want to give a big push to our regional trading agreements with Africa, in order to support your own integration and contribute to your development agenda.

Thirdly, we intend to boost aid for trade.

Regarding the multilateral trading system and WTO, we have to ensure that the Doha Development Agenda ensures the proper integration of Africa in global trade. It will do so if we agree on new pro-development trade rules, on more market access for manufactured and agricultural products, and of course if we agree on real flexibility for African countries.

As far as rules in the WTO are concerned, we should focus on measures to facilitate trade, so as to increase revenues by simplified and more efficient customs duty collection, and so as to decrease costs to consumers and businesses. The cost of trade procedures is significant. It may represent as much as 4-5 % of the overall costs of trade transactions, which is about the same as the average tariff applied to industrial goods by developed countries.

In terms of market access, what will benefit you most is greater market access opportunities not just to traditional industrial markets, but also to advanced developing countries' markets. Indeed, 70% of tariffs paid by developing countries are to other developing countries. We should certainly push this agenda too.

As to our bilateral relations: last year we initiated the negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and the 16 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa, all of which are members of COMESA.

The EPA is not a traditional liberalisation agreement; it is designed and intended to be a development tool. It wants to put trade at the service of development by bringing "aid for trade" together with progressive market opening, at a gradual and appropriate pace.

As such, the EPAs:

will provide for even greater market access to EU markets for ACP exports;

will provide for South/South market creation, which has a great potential and should be seen as a clear priority before increasing market opening of Southern markets to the North;

will enable the EU to support, financially, the integration processes in the ACP regions.

To make sure that EPAs keep the development focus, Trade Commissioner Mandelson and I have set up a development review mechanism, to ensure that the support we are giving for supply side development and regional integration actually translates into real capacity building.

I call on you to take up ownership of these agreements, and to use them as levers in your own strategies for reform and integration.

The process of COMESA's integration is, I know, one of the major challenges that you have set for yourselves. This Summit in Kigali will be an important milestone in your integration process. We in Europe not only applaud the region's substantial efforts undertaken towards integration but we also actively encourage and try to bring our support to the process.

We currently have an envelope of more than 300 million EUR available to assist the region in your integration process. COMESA is one of our four partners in the region, and I would like to thank COMESA for the active role you play in the implementation of our cooperation activities.

We shall soon start two major initiatives that will give a fresh impetus to the regional integration process.

- The Regional Integration Support Project of 30 m € will contribute to economic integration by developing capacity in policy formulation, implementation and monitoring of regional integration. It will also assist the region in their preparations for the Economic Partnership Agreements.

- A second programme, the Trade Integration Budget Support of 80 m €, will give direct support to the member states of COMESA to move forward in their integration agenda.

Both these initiatives aim directly at supporting economic integration.

And they complement several other programmes which are in place and which contribute to the integration of the region in areas such as management of natural resources, transport, telecommunication and peace and security.

Permettez-moi de revenir sur un point que j'ai déjà cité lors de l'assemblée paritaire UE-ACP à Bamako, au Mali, il y a quelques semaines, et qui me semble essentiel pour la réussite de nos négociations. J'ai l'impression que trop souvent par le passé nous, Européens et Africains, avons traité la coopération nationale et régionale comme s'il s'agissait de deux planètes différentes, orbitant dans des galaxies à des années lumières l'une de l'autre. C'est une mauvaise approche, qui a rendu notre action moins efficace aux deux niveaux, régional et national. Il est grand temps que les questions régionales soient abordées au sein des politiques nationales de développement de chaque état ACP et qu'elles retrouvent une place adéquate dans le Document de Stratégie pour la Réduction de la Pauvreté. Si le grand rêve de l'Union Africaine d'une intégration continentale se réalisera un jour, passant par des sub-régions fortes et efficaces, il est essentiel, je le répète, essentiel que chaque pays du continent fasse de l'intégration régionale un pilier central de sa propre politique de développement et qu'il s'en donne les moyens. Je m'engage à être à vos côtés aussi sur ce chemin et à me battre sans relâche pour que la contribution de l'Union Européenne soit concrète, efficace et généreuse.

Je suis heureux de vous confirmer que la Commission européenne et les Etats membres ont de nouveau confirmé leur engagement envers l'Afrique. C'est pourquoi la Commission a adopté un paquet de propositions très ambitieuses et très concrètes qui doivent permettre d'accélérer la réalisation des objectifs du millénaire. Ces propositions reflètent nos objectifs pour augmenter le volume de l'aide, pour en améliorer l'efficacité ainsi que pour assurer la cohérence des politiques de développement.

Le troisième élément de ce paquet concerne la focalisation sur l'Afrique et sera développé davantage lors de mois qui viennent, quand je proposerai une Communication spécifique sur l'Afrique. Lors du Conseil des Ministres la semaine passée, l'UE a approuvé ces propositions et s'est notamment mise d'accord pour augmenter son Aide Publique au Développement à 0,56% en 2010. Et je suis heureux de pouvoir vous confirmer que au moins 50% des cette augmentation sera destinée à l'Afrique. L'Europe compte renforcer son action en faveur de l'Afrique afin vous aider à atteindre les Objectifs du Millénaire.

Votre continent en a besoin.

Votre continent le mérite.

The Afro-pessimism of the last decades has gradually made room for a wind of optimism and voluntarism. The context has changed. Today, there is a giant opportunity to make of Africa a more prosperous, a more stable and a better governed continent.

The birth of the African Union and the launching of NEPAD has strengthened Africa's self-confidence. The African Union and NEPAD endowed the continent with a new vision, a mission and a strategy.

A vision of Africa taking responsibility of Africa's crises. The dynamic and bold performance of the African Union in Sudan or Ivory Coast has astonished the world. The African Union Mission in Sudan has confronted the war with courage and perseverance. Europe has answered with the same sense of responsibility to your appeal. We face this challenge together. The 250M€ Peace Facility for Africa has given the necessary financial muscle to your determination. A determination that, we hope, one day will wipe away all the conflicts affecting the continent making war a nightmare of the past.

A vision also of a better governed Africa. Africa has decisively taken the path towards democracy. In the past five years, more than two-thirds of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa had multi-party elections - some freer and fairer than others - with a number of examples of peaceful democratic changes of government. But there is more. With the African Peer Review Mechanism, Africa disposes of a unique tool of monitoring of Africans by Africans. The Commission offers its unconditional support to this endeavour and will secure financial means to help you to implement the recommendations of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Our host country of today, Rwanda, is one of the first to submit itself to a review, and I wish to congratulate President Kagame for his decision to do so.

A vision also of true economic integration of the continent. There can be no economic integration without physical interconnection. There is a need for a more ambitious and long-term approach. There is a need for a strong Europe-Africa Partnership on Infrastructure. For that reason, I will propose a pluri-annual and comprehensive masterplan for infrastructure in Africa. We will discuss and define together with the African Union and other subregional organisations to define their preferences. But it will be based on ambitious Trans-African networks. It should cover roads, railways, airports, energy, water, ICT. A partnership that can give a decisive boost to Africa's integration and help its economies to catch up during these first years of the 21st century. You can count on me, you can count on the Commission, you can count on the European Union.

Excellences,

La nature de la relation entre l'Afrique et l'UE a change grâce à l'émergence de l'Union Africaine qui s'appuie sur des organisations régionales de plus en plus efficaces. Aujourd'hui, le concept qui fait vivre cette relation est fondé sur le respect mutuel, sur la confiance mutuelle entre celles et ceux qui conduisent nos institutions respectives.

L'Afrique et l'Europe sont des continents voisins qui interagissent mutuellement. Nous avons l'intime conviction que notre devoir commun est de forger la paix, la sécurité et la prospérité. Nous devons le faire pour cicatriser définitivement les plaies d'une Histoire douloureuse.

Nous devons le faire pour les Africains.

Nous devons le faire pour les Européens.

Nous devons le faire pour le Monde.

Il y a à peine 3 ans vous avez conçu un acte d'Histoire, un de ces moments bénis où les génies optimistes de l'homme croisent les chemins de la volonté pour rompre avec les ombres du passé et s'ouvrir avec ferveur aux espérances de l'avenir.

Je vous remercie.

Ref: SP05-266EN
EU source: European Commission
UN forum:
Date: 2/6/2005

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