EU launches Africa strategy
2005-10-12 20:34
Brussels - The European Union launched an ambitious new strategy for Africa on Wednesday including bolstering the continent's transport infrastructure, saying recent immigrant deaths highlight the need for action.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso outlined plans after talks with the chief executive of the African Union, Alpha Oumar Konare, who said poverty remained a fundamental problem driving young Africans to seek to leave.
Barroso said: "The problem of immigration, the dramatic consequences of which we are witnessing, can only be addressed effectively ... through an ambitious and coordinated development cooperation to fight its root causes."
EU aid commissioner Louis Michel said: "The EU strategy ... will mark a true turning point to help Africa help itself," noting that the strategy still has to be approved by the European parliament and EU governments.
The EU initiative comes after the bloc's 25 member governments agreed in May to increase development aid budget by €20bn per year by 2010, with at least earmarked for Africa.
From €17bn for Africa in 2003 the figure would rise to 25 billion at the end of the decade, according to EU figures.
On the immigration problem, Konare warned that the "walls and prisons" cannot prevent immigrants trying to enter Europe illegally, saying the underlying economic and social reasons had to be tackled.
"It's not security measures, it's not prisons in Madrid and walls in Africa that will solve the problem," said Konare, chair of the AU commission.
Some 14 people have died in recent months while trying to break into Spanish enclaves, some of them shot by Moroccan security forces.
The African Union leader said the underlying problems which fueled an exodus of poor Africans had to be tackled.
"We have to have the courage to broach the problem of farm subsidies, which weaken our economy and impoverish our rural areas," he said, in a clear reference to the EU's long-controversial generous farm aid system.
Konare added that African immigrants like those trying to get into Spain "are a reflection of the poverty" of a continent on which 40% of the population lives on less than a euro a day.
The EU strategy is designed to help Africa achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals, chief among which is to reduce poverty by half by 2015.
Above all Africa needs peace and stability, said the EU executive, explaining its proposals to strengthen good governance - sorely needed to overturn the continent's reputation for corruption.
But it stressed that the key motor of African development will be strengthening economies, and for that infrastrure - road and rail transport, but also water, energy and telecoms links - is crucial.
- SAPA