Nahas to attend EU-Africa summit

PRIME Minister Nahas Angula will travel to Portugal today to represent Namibia at the EU-Africa summit in Lisbon this weekend.

He will be accompanied by several ministers and top Government officials from the Ministries of Trade, Foreign Affairs, Finance and the National Planning Commission (NPC). It is the second summit of this kind after the first one took place in Cairo, Egypt, in 2000.No summits have taken place since then, because other European countries did not want to invite President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who will attend this weekend’s summit.The member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had threatened to boycott the summit, should Mugabe not be allowed to attend.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will remain in London after he declared he would stay away for the Lisbon meeting should Mugabe be present.Topping the agenda will be a joint EU-Africa strategy and an action plan regarding peace and security, governance and human rights, energy and climate change.The millennium development goals (MDGs), trade between the 27 EU member states and Africa, infrastructure and development support for Africa will also be discussed.Climate change, agriculture, migration and employment are also expected to be hotly debated.Negotiations for the action plan started in February 2007 on Government level, but civil society and non-governmental organisations were also invited to submit proposals.However, Namibian NGOs appear to have been unaware of this opportunity.”We are unaware of the participation process,” said Phil ya Nangoloh, Executive Director of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), when approached yesterday.”We only know through international news reports that the Lisbon summit is taking place.”According to the official website of the summit (www.europafrica.org), trade and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will dominate the summit, since only a few African countries signed them Nahas to attend EU-Africa summit before the deadline at the end of November.Namibia, Angola and South Africa last week refused to sign the interim EPAs, which are to replace the existing Cotonou Agreement of 2000 by the end of this year.The summit is preceded by a three-day youth forum with representatives from Europe and Africa, which ends today.Parallel to the summit an international alternative summit takes place in Lisbon, dominated by NGOs which propagate fair trade between developing countries and industrialised nations.It is the second summit of this kind after the first one took place in Cairo, Egypt, in 2000.No summits have taken place since then, because other European countries did not want to invite President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who will attend this weekend’s summit.The member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had threatened to boycott the summit, should Mugabe not be allowed to attend.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will remain in London after he declared he would stay away for the Lisbon meeting should Mugabe be present.Topping the agenda will be a joint EU-Africa strategy and an action plan regarding peace and security, governance and human rights, energy and climate change.The millennium development goals (MDGs), trade between the 27 EU member states and Africa, infrastructure and development support for Africa will also be discussed.Climate change, agriculture, migration and employment are also expected to be hotly debated.Negotiations for the action plan started in February 2007 on Government level, but civil society and non-governmental organisations were also invited to submit proposals.However, Namibian NGOs appear to have been unaware of this opportunity.”We are unaware of the participation process,” said Phil ya Nangoloh, Executive Director of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), when approached yesterday.”We only know through international news reports that the Lisbon summit is taking place.”According to the official website of the summit (www.europafrica.org), trade and the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will dominate the summit, since only a few African countries signed them Nahas to attend EU-Africa summit before the deadline at the end of November.Namibia, Angola and South Africa last week refused to sign the interim EPAs, which are to replace the existing Cotonou Agreement of 2000 by the end of this year.The summit is preceded by a three-day youth forum with representatives from Europe and Africa, which ends today.Parallel to the summit an international alternative summit takes place in Lisbon, dominated by NGOs which propagate fair trade between developing countries and industrialised nations.