European-African Conference Winds up with Optimism over Strategic Partnership
Regional-European Union, Politics, 10/12/2001

The first Euro-African ministerial conference, held after the Euro-African Cairo summit in April 2000, wound up in Brussels on Thursday with participants voicing optimism that a global and strategic partnership between the two sides will be set in motion.

The European Union's member countries and heads of diplomacies of most African countries, including Morocco, took part in the encounter that reviewed several aspects of the endemic crisis in Africa.

Regarding conflict prevention, the conference agreed to develop warning indicators and address roots of conflicts such as poverty, environment degradation and others. They argued that no sustainable development is possible without taking into account environment protection (drought, desertification). They also stressed the need to take urgent measures and adopt a global and coherent strategy to fight AIDS while the European side said it is ready to grant the AIDS epidemic priority in its development programs.

The conference also debated issues related to regional cooperation and development, food security, human rights, democracy, culture and external debt. On this last item, it merely renewed "the need to carry on studying the African indebtedness issue."

The African and European officials also approved a statement rejecting terrorism and voicing readiness to fight the phenomenon in all its forms.

Regarding the new African initiative presented by five African heads of state, it was welcomed as an important effort developed by Africa itself to settle problems. The conference agreed to elaborate a harmonious wording between this initiative and other existing ones, such as the Cairo process, relations between the European Union and the African-Caribbean program and the Euro-Mediterranean Barcelona process.

A second ministerial conference is slated for 2002 in Burkina Faso.

Morocco was represented at the Brussels meeting by minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa.

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