Africa needs a sharper focus

6.04.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 7th Dec 2007

Ahead of this weekend's EU-Africa summit in Lisbon, the ALDE group backs the Commission's call for a new partnership of equals but suggests a need for more focus for concrete results to be achievable.

Graham Watson, group leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe said:

"There is clearly a lot of catching up to do after seven years without an EU-Africa summit. In that time the world has changed considerably and Africa has been largely left behind in the process of globalisation."

"It may be tempting to try to address all issues at once, but for significant progress to be made in a realistic time scale we should be focusing on no more than three or four top priorities."

"We are under a legal obligation to establish a new basis to our relationship with African countries through a new generation of Economic Partnership Agreements that are a genuine tool for development."

"No new partnership with Africa can be complete without attention to Human Rights and good governance. I do not want to see EU leaders shying away from frank criticism of undemocratic regimes that disregard the basic rights of their citizens, especially Zimbabwe and Sudan - Human Rights must be a pillar of our relationship not a side show."

Thierry Cornillet (MoDem, France), ALDE develoment committee coodinator and standing rapporteur on humanitarian aid focused his remarks on the new humanitarian consensus which is due to be signed by the end of the year:

"Africa is the recipient of the majority of the world's humanitarian aid and the European Union is the principle donor. I very much welcome the focus on this area of immediate relief for communities throughout the African continent."

"In particular donor countries should be working closely with those prone to the effects of natural disasters to reduce their exposure. All developing countries, especially in Africa, should concentrate on better preparedness to face some of the environmental threats from our changing climate. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a very concrete and practical way we can show our support and solidarity with our African partners."