AWEPA Seminar on New EU Member States and Development Cooperation

AWEPA is a group of ‘European Parliamentarians for Africa’ who organise seminars twice a year that coincide with the Presidencies of the EU. The Slovenian Presidency Seminar was held at the end of February, and was titled ‘The role of the new EU member states in EU-Africa Development Policy’. The seminar included a session on ‘The New EU Member States and Recent Development Cooperation Experience, Policies and Future Plans’, which featured speakers from Lithuania and Slovenia.

The session was chaired by Alfa-Niaky Barry, the Secretary General of the NEPAD Forum for African Parliamentarians. He presented apologies on behalf of Professor Mathurin Nago, the president of NEPAD, who was unable to attend due to elections in Benin. Mr Barry spoke about the necessity of parliamentary control over public development aid that leads to the building of legitimacy within African institutions.

He spoke of a desire for new member states to break with traditional taboos, avoided by older member states, and to commit to transparency where development aid is concerned.

The other speakers within the session included Danute Budreikaite, the (Lithuanian) MEP author of a recently adopted EP report and Anton Kokalj, an MP from Slovenia who chairs the Committee on EU Affairs.

Dr Budreikaite spoke about new member states’ experience targeting their immediate neighbours, and went on to present the situation of Development Cooperation Policy in her home country of Lithuania. She explained the history of her country’s development policy and outlined their commitment to meeting the MDGs and promoting democracy, security and stability, primarily in neighbouring countries. She did however stress that new member states were beginning to revise their strategies to include African countries and stated that it is essential for new member states to enhance their bilateral development cooperation activities towards Africa and contribute more to the EU-Africa Development Policy.

Mr Kokalj covered the priorities for the Slovenian Presidency in terms of development cooperation; highlighting the provision of security and aid to women and children affected by armed conflicts. He also touched on the importance of development education, when discussing the conference that is to be held in June, and noted that particular attention would also be paid to environmental issues, social exclusion and dialogue between generations. Mr Kokalj underlined the importance of the adoption of the Africa-EU Joint Strategy and its first Action Plan, which the Slovenian Presidency is committed to getting off to a good start.

The seminar resulted in a set of recommendations for parliamentary actions, which can be found (together with the presentations) on the AWEPA website: http://www.awepa.org/

Information provided by Rebecca Steel, TRIALOG Policy Officer