EU-AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT SCENESETTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LISBON 003106 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2016 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PO PREL XA EUN SUBJECT: EU-AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT SCENESETTER Classified By: POL CHIEF TROY FITRELL, REASONS 1.4 (B,D) ¶1. (U) Summary. More than 100 delegations will be in Lisbon for the EU-African Union Summit December 8-9, representing every state in both organizations, plus a few more. This event will consume nearly 20 percent of Portugal's entire EU Presidency budget. Participants will adopt the Strategic Partnership document and the First Action Plan, developed jointly over the last eight months by AU and EU working groups. Portugal's main objective is to put in place structures that ensure regular and sustained interactions between the two continents across a range of key sectors. Specific country situations (Zimbabwe, Sudan) are not on the formal agenda, although we have heard some discussion of crisis situations may occur on the margins. End summary. ¶2. (C) To the Government of Portugal (GOP) the EU-African Union Summit is the crowning achievement of its EU presidency. The GOP inherited most presidency issues -- such as Kosovo and the finalizing of the EU reform treaty -- but this summit is the one for which the GOP was the driving force. The GOP had also pressed for the holding of the first-ever EU-Brazil Summit at the outset of the presidency, but even GOP officials privately admit that it was little more than a photo opportunity. The EU-AU Summit, by contrast, should establish an architecture for relationships between the two continents. ¶3. (U) The GOP recently needed to pass a 10 million euro supplemental appropriation to address last minute summit costs. Despite having already hosted 3,400 meetings over six months, this two day summit alone represents nearly 20 percent of Portugal's EU Presidency budget, signifying its importance to the GOP. Descending on Lisbon -------------- ¶4. (U) More than 100 delegations are expected to gather in Lisbon December 8-9 for the EU-African Union Summit. The delegations include the 27 EU member states, 52 AU member states, Morocco, the African Commission, the European Commission, European and Pan-African parliamentary bodies, and specialized agencies, plus Norway and Turkey, which will be invited to participate in select discussions. Each official delegation includes 15 participants, although many delegations are traveling with more than 100. Lisbon's top-end hotels are booked to capacity, even with Libya's Muammar Qaddafi staying in his traditional tent. ¶5. (U) Not all countries will be represented by the head of state/government. The United Kingdom, for example, will likely be represented by a former junir minister in protest of the attendance of Zimbawean President Mugabe, who is under EU travel retrictions that were waived for the summit. The Cechs will send their Foreign Minister. G-8, EFTA,and BRIC nations were invited to attend as obserers, although those invitations are only for theopening and closing ceremonies. ¶6. (C) Neithe Prime Minister Socrates nor Foreign Minister Amao will greet arriving delegations, ostensibly becase there are too many delegations, but also, we uspect, to avoid having a handshake with Presidet Mugabe captured by eager cameramen. Mugabe' participation -------------- ¶7. (C) GP officials told us early and often that this summt was their most important priority. They belieed, however, that Mugabe's participation was theprice of having the summit, as some African leadrs made it clear they would not attend if particuar leaders were barred. ¶8. (C) GOP leaders, incuding Foreign Minister Amado, tried to mitigate the political fallout from the long-expected invitation by making public statements that they hoped Mugabe would choose not to come. Privately, however, they told us that they knew he would accept the invitation but that the EU-AU relationship could not be held hostage to problems with one particular leader. ¶9. (C) A senior Lisbon-based diplomat from an EU member state told us recently that several EU leaders would, in their addresses, express concern about the situation in Zimbabwe. He added that the EU had developed "contingency plans" for an appropriate response if Mugabe got out of line during the summit proceedings. So let it be written, so let it be done -------------- LISBON 00003106 002 OF 003 ¶10. (U) As is necessary in a short gathering of so many delegations, the main work of the summit will be to put a formal imprimatur on two documents: a "Strategic Partnership" and a "First Action Plan." The first stresses, in very general terms, the importance of partnership between the two continents while the second identifies eight areas of collaboration. The member state presidencies of the EU and AU led the development of these papers in conjunction with EU and AU institutions. (Note: EUR/ERA has copies of both documents for those who desire more detail than included in this cable. End note.) ¶11. (U) The working groups that developed the Strategic Partnership and the First Action Plan, including the 9th Africa-EU Ministerial troika meeting on October 31 that endorsed the two papers, discussed specific crisis situations in Africa and Europe (Sudan, Somalia, Chad/Central African Republic, etc. in the former; Kosovo in the latter),but individual country situations are not addressed in the summit documents. ¶12. (U) For that reason, Zimbabwe, Darfur, and other crisis situations are not formal items on the summit agenda. (Note: This, despite the Portuguese presidency's repeated assertion that the value of inviting Zimbabwe to the summit was to hold President Mugabe responsible for his actions against his own people. End note.) During the discussions of the eight partnerships, which include human rights and security components, one representative each from EU and AU member states will make an address. There will be a limited right to comment by any participating state, at the discretion of the chair. ¶13. (C) In addition to the theoretical discussions, the summit documents -- indeed, the summit itself -- focus on putting in place the architecture of future cooperative engagement. The timing of future summits (once every three years),the strengthening of institutional bodies, and the definition of the roles of those institutional bodies comprise the main expected accomplishments of the EU-AU Summit. Eight Key "Partnerships" -------------- ¶14. (C) The summit documents identify the following eight areas -- or "partnerships" -- for sustained collaboration: Peace and Security: Enhance dialogue on challenges to peace and security; Full operationalization of the African Peace and Security Architecture; and Predictable funding for African-led Peace Support Operations. Democratic Governance and Human Rights: Enhance dialogue at global level and in international fora; Promote the African Peer Review Mechanism and support the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance; and Strengthen cooperation in the area of cultural goods. Trade and Regional Integration: Support the African integration agenda; Strengthen African capacities in the area of rules, standards, and quality control; and Implement the EU-Africa Infrastructure Partnership. Millennium Development Goals: Ensure the finance and policy base for achieving the MDGs; and Accelerate the achievement of the Food Security, Health, and Education targets of the MDGs. Energy: Implement the Energy Partnership to intensify cooperation on energy security and energy access. Climate Change: Build a common agenda on climate change policies and cooperation; and Cooperate to address land degradation and increasing aridity, including the "Green Wall for the Sahara Initiative." Migration, Mobility, and Employment: Implement the Declaration of the Tripoli Conference on Migration and Development; Implement the EU-Africa Plan of Action on trafficking of human beings; Implement and follow up the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Action Plan on employment and poverty alleviation in Africa. Science, Information Society, and Space: Support the development of an inclusive information society in Africa; Support S&T capacity building in Africa and implement Africa's S&T consolidated plan of action; Enhance cooperation on space applications and technology. Comment LISBON 00003106 003 OF 003 -------------- ¶15. (C) Some observers have commented that the only success from the first -- and only -- EU-Africa summit in 2000 was merely that it was held. The Portuguese have somewhat more ambitious objectives this time around, with their sights set on establishing an architecture that will institutionalize and deepen the EU's relations with Africa. Indeed, the very act of developing the summit documents strengthened nascent African Union institutions and intensified their collaboration with EU counterparts. In the short-term, however, it is not encouraging that the summit's human rights/good governance discussion will allocate time to the recovery of African cultural goods but not to the genocide in Sudan or to Robert Mugabe's systematic crushing of political dissent. Stephenson