WINDHOEK – The European Union (EU) has requested the presence of President Hifikepunye Pohamba at the EU-Africa Summit in Brussels on April 2 and 3. The European External Action Service (EEAS) Director, Koen Vervaeke, is expected to deliver the invitation to President Pohamba during his scheduled visit to Namibia on January 16 and 17.

Vervaeke is furthermore expected to meet Namibia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Trade Minister Calle Schlettwein and other senior government officials, representatives from civil society as well as representatives from key economic sectors, such as the agriculture and mining sectors.

Vervaeke, who is on official visits to the Horn of Africa, and eastern and southern Africa, is responsible for the coherence of European Union action in the region and the programming of the EU’s financial cooperation.

The upcoming EU-Africa Summit is seen as a unique opportunity to renew the momentum of this continental partnership and discussions will focus on precursors of growth and enablers for jobs to grow. This is why it has been agreed that the theme of the summit will be “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace.”

Top business people, as well as representative small businesses from both continents, will furthermore be invited to a Business Forum on the eve of the summit to discuss ways of improving the investment and business climate in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region and to raise the profile of doing business in Africa.

“In an increasingly interdependent world, Africa and Europe’s future are closely interlinked. The European Union and the African Union must work together not just to provide security, but to improve the day-to-day lives of all citizens,” said José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.

The strategic partnership between Africa and the EU pursues common objectives and aims to expand the political dialogue and concrete operation into new areas of shared interest.

A total of 80 Heads of State and Government from Africa and Europe adopted the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) at the summit in Lisbon in 2007, where both sides agreed to pursue common interests and strategic objectives.  The JAES outlines a long-term shared vision of the future of Africa-EU relations in a globalised world.

European and African Union Commissions will meet to pave the way for the next Africa-EU Summit.

Cooperation between the two continents were cemented last year when European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and six European Commissioners met their African Union (AU) counterparts on April 25 and 26, 2013, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The high-level event, which took place in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Organisation of the African Union (OAU), launched the preparations of the 4th Africa-EU Summit due to take place in Brussels in April.

The meeting further strengthened bilateral cooperation and political dialogue between the two continents, promoted shared interests and tackled common regional and global challenges within the Joint Africa-EU Strategy.

During the visit, President Barroso said: “Africa and Europe are each other’s closest neighbours. The partnership between the European Commission and the African Union is becoming ever more relevant by the day. I look forward to our next College-to-College (C2C) meeting, an event which symbolises the cooperation, convergence and complicity between the two sister organisations that have been driving regional integration in both Europe and Africa. I am proud of what we have achieved together so far. And I am convinced that we can do much more in the future by jointly tackling our shared challenges, from climate action to regional security, eradicating poverty and sharing the benefits of trade and growth.”

The EU is the biggest trading partner for Africa and remains its most important donor. African countries received close to €24 billion (about N$350 billion) of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the EU in the period 2007–2012.