The European Union must assert its long-standing cooperative relationship with Africa in the face of the increasing strength on the continent of Russia or China, which, unlike the EU, do not have the strengthening of institutions solid democracies “on their agenda,” MEP Soraya Rodríguez explains in an interview with Efe.
“Many times you can be launching an image that is somewhat different from reality. The EU continues to be the largest partner of the African Union,” said Rodríguez, who is president of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the Pan-African Parliament, ahead of the sixth summit that the European Union and the African Union will hold on 17 and February 18 in Brussels.
This summit is being held months behind schedule due to the pandemic, a topic that will feature prominently at the leaders’ meeting.
Rodríguez warned that, while 70% of developed countries have their population fully vaccinated, this percentage barely reaches 10% in Africa.
“We have to stop talking about vaccines to talk about vaccination, we have to improve the obstacles in the field of vaccine distribution and also strengthen local production, in Africa,” she commented, referring to a mechanism that can later be used for the production and distribution of other medicines.
But in addition to health, investments will be the protagonists at this summit after the announcement by the European Commission that it wants to mobilize 150,000 million euros in Africa in this section.
Rodríguez trusted that “ambitious” agreements on sustainable investments will come out of the summit: “The African continent continues to be one of those that contributes the least in percentages of CO2 to the planet but, in turn, is the one that is already suffering the most from all the consequences of climate change,” he said.
In addition, she made it clear that these investments must include agriculture, since “one in five Africans suffers from hunger today” and the majority of African populations “still live on a very local, subsistence economy.”
RUSSIA AND CHINA
For the liberal MEP, it is necessary to “focus all efforts on people, from the point of view of human rights”, without forgetting that in Africa “it is not just us, there are other agents, other countries (…) that do not work in the same direction in which the European Union is working”.
Hence the concern about the existence of paramilitary groups promoted by private companies such as the Russian Wagner group, sanctioned by the EU for violating human rights and that “works with the forces that try to destabilize many African countries,” she said.
To contribute to peace, security and stability in Africa, the EU’s “fundamental objective” is to support “solid” democratic institutions, in which “to support all the fields of development in which we work”.
Instead, she made it clear that the “strengthening of democratic institutions is not on the agenda” of countries like Russia or China, which are also investing heavily in the continent.
In any case, he stressed that the EU maintains a “great presence” from the point of view of development cooperation, trade relations and peace and security operations.
“Destabilizing is easier than sustaining a process of peace, security, development aid, collaboration and cooperation in the field of social and economic development. Therefore, the only way is to move forward, maintain our collaboration and strengthen the bonds of understanding”, she added.
COMMITTED TO YOUNG PEOPLE
Rodríguez also considered that this summit is going to talk a lot about young people, education and training, in addition to the need to empower women and protect their rights.
“There are many young people who are coming to institutions, who are leaving universities, young women and men who are starting new projects, a small and medium-sized company that moves very well, that has also connected very well with this digital world, who knows that with a computer and internet access they can move around the world, and we cannot ignore that reality,” she asserted.
Rodríguez trusted that the summit can give a “political boost” to SMEs for greater “investment cooperation.”
“There are enormous possibilities to invest, to work in Africa on successful models. There are some really interesting initiatives, which are those that are aimed at small and medium-sized companies”, she underlined.
Despite the fact that on many occasions the news that comes from Africa is usually related to an armed conflict or food security problems, “underneath that there is a very active African society”, concluded the MEP.