European Union - Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne’s participation in the Africa-Europe High-Level Forum (Vienna, 18 December 2018)
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Minister of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, will visit Vienna on December 18 to take part in the Africa-Europe High-Level Forum; the forum’s theme this year is “Taking cooperation to the digital age.”
The goal of this forum, which is being co-chaired by Austria and Rwanda, which hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union and the chairmanship of the African Union, respectively, is to provide European and African leaders, as well as private sector actors, with a platform for debate in order to strengthen EU-African relations and promote innovation and digitalization as important enablers of development. Several French firms will take part in this forum.
The minister of state will call for the strengthening of cooperation between Africa and Europe in the areas of innovation and digitalization, within the context of the Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs proposed by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker during his State of the Union Address in September.
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne will showcase French measures to support the development of networks and infrastructure aimed at making broadband accessible to all. He will also present France’s “Digital Africa” initiative announced by President Macron in his speech in Ouagadougou in November 2017. This initiative should make it possible to identify the most promising African start-ups and to support their growth. The minister of state will underscore that France champions digitalization that benefits citizens and respects their rights.