European Union/African Union – Participation of M. Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne in the ministerial meeting (Brussels, 21-22 January 2019)

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M. Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Minister of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, will take part in the joint meeting of European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) ministers in Brussels tomorrow.

Organized half-way between the summit of EU and AU heads of state and government in Abidjan in November 2017 and the next summit, to be organized in 2020, the meeting should provide an opportunity to reaffirm how important and unique the EU-Africa partnership is, and to work on implementing common strategic priorities, building on the Abidjan Declaration.

The ministers will discuss cooperation between the two organizations in the areas of peace and security, economic development and promoting multilateralism:

  • on the peace and security challenges, France will call for closer coordination between the two organizations, including on the issue of financing African peace operations;
  • in the trade and investment field, it will signal its support for the planned EU-Africa alliance proposed by the European Commission and for African plans to strengthen the continent’s economic and trade integration;
  • on global challenges of common interest, France will call for closer coordination between the two organizations in order to exert influence together on the key issues of migration, reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the fight against climate change.