EU-Africa ministerial meeting ends with final communiqué

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, December 7, 2007 - A ministerial meeting gathering some 80 foreign ministers or representatives from the European Union (EU) and Africa ended Wednesday afternoon at this Egyptian Red Sea resort with the adoption of a final communiqué, Xinhua reported.

The EU-Africa ministerial meeting, which is for the preparation of an upcoming EU-Africa summit in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, focused on several topics related to the summit which is to further promote and enhance the partnership between the two sides.

During the speeches at the meeting, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ghana and Portugal underlined the importance of the strategic relations between the EU and Africa, welcomed the enhancement of their cooperation in various fields, the communiqué said.

"The participants at the preparatory meeting have approved the Lisbon Declaration which will be adopted by the heads of state during the summit in the Portuguese capital," Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Gheit told a news conference at the end of the two-day meeting.

Abu Gheit also brushed aside criticism from the New York-based Human Rights Watch that the EU-Africa summit on December 8 and 9 in Lisbon would ignore flashpoint humanitarian issues like Darfur, Somalia and Zimbabwe

They also expressed their confidence that the upcoming summit in Lisbon, which was scheduled for December 8 to 9, would give a new momentum to the process launched in the first EU-Africa summit held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in 2000, it added.

Ministers and heads of delegations attending the meeting discussed some draft documents prepared by the Africa and EU troika meetings, namely the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership and the First Action Plan, which will be endorsed in Lisbon summit.

The participants agreed that the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership provides a solid foundation for an sustained partnership between the two sides and should lead to positive results for the people of both sides, said the communiqué.

Forty-five African foreign ministers gathered at the Egyptian Red Sea resort with around 15 EU ministers to prepare for the Lisbon summit, only the second to be held since an inaugural meeting in Cairo in 2000.