Dernière mise à jour : il y a 6 jours
PREAMBLE
African and European civil society organizations urge AU and EU Heads of State and Government to take full advantage of the opportunity the AU-EU Summit offers to build a transformative partnership grounded in solidarity, equity, and justice—one that delivers for people and planet, not profit. This partnership must also guarantee an enabling environment for civil society and ensure that citizens and their representative organizations can engage freely, safely, and meaningfully in shaping shared futures.
A renewed AU-EU partnership is possible: one that promotes inclusive dialogues with youth, civil society, and diverse stakeholders, one that is committed to equitable and transparent decision-making processes, recognizes power imbalances and the historical debt of Europe towards Africa. As leaders gather in Luanda, a shifting and turbulent global situation is observed. Now is the moment for a reset that builds a genuine, equitable, and sustainable partnership rooted in the principles of policy coherence, justice, ecology, and dignity.
Since the 6th AU-EU Summit in 2022, civil society and youth actors have met regularly, building connections and organizing to speak with one voice. This has resulted in a proposal for a Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) in the partnership and the launch of an autonomous Africa-Europe Civil Society Platform. Despite these achievements, persistent challenges remain for civil society in participating meaningfully.
The recommendations prioritize the voice of the most-affected, address deep-rooted causes, and focus on transversal issues. They are grouped into three chapters: Rights and stability; Structural transformations; and Funding. They are submitted in the spirit of fostering constructive cooperation.
RIGHTS & STABILITY
This section covers human rights, civic space, social rights and human development, peace and security, migration and mobility.
Human Rights
Human rights are a cornerstone of the AU-EU partnership, yet gaps persist amid democratic backsliding, gender backlash, repression of civic freedoms, and growing state control. Pressing issues include increased use of security laws to restrict dissent, gender-based violence, and weak accountability mechanisms. Protecting fundamental rights like gender equality, youth participation, and freedom of expression is vital. Building inclusive societies requires ensuring women and girls can fully exercise their rights and live free from violence. Sustained commitment to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Maputo Protocol, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights strengthens the partnership.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Reaffirm universal and indivisible human rights and rule of law as the foundation of all cooperation.
* Reaffirm full commitment to advancing gender equality and upholding the rights of women and girls, including comprehensive implementation of CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol.
* Deepen the regular human rights dialogue between the AU and EU, moving beyond dialogue to tangible actions like protecting civil society space.
* Guarantee protection and support to human rights defenders, journalists, women activists, and environmental defenders.
* Ensure constitutional and legal reforms are carried out through inclusive, participatory, and transparent processes.
* Protect civic freedoms during electoral and constitutional cycles.
* Ensure access to justice and reinforce accountability systems.
Civic Space and participation
An open civic space is fundamental to democratic governance, policy accountability, and effective partnership. Structured civil society engagement brings grassroots perspectives and strengthens legitimacy. However, civil society faces restrictive laws, global funding cuts, and systemic barriers for young people and persons with disabilities. Human rights defenders face harassment. All stakeholders should participate safely and freely. Consultation in the Partnership remains limited and exclusive. The 7th Summit is an opportunity to invest in a sustainable, institutionalized mechanism for CSO/youth involvement.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Institutionalize civil society participation in the AU-EU partnership and monitoring mechanisms, considering the CSEM proposal.
* Safeguard freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression across all contexts, offline and online.
* Ensure laws governing online expression are clear, transparent, and subject to judicial oversight.
* Institutionalize and enforce Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for Indigenous Peoples affected by investment or infrastructure projects.
* Establish dedicated, predictable, flexible, and accessible funding instruments for CSOs.
* Increase accessibility of EU funding for small and local African organizations.
Human Development
Human development is an overarching lens for rights and stability. The partnership's success depends on advancing people's rights to food, health, education, decent work, and social protection. Cooperation should be built on "leave no one behind," intersectionality, and community-level empowerment. The EU's Global Gateway focus on infrastructure risks diverting support from human development and essential public services.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Increase the share of public resources supporting health, education, social protection, and skills development, safeguarding EU Official Development Assistance (ODA) for essential services.
* Strengthen partnership to achieve African health sovereignty with a strong rights-based approach, including particular attention to gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
* Recognize female genital mutilation (FGM) as a health emergency whose elimination must come through the eradication of its root causes.
* Strengthening African health Research and Innovation (R&I) systems, the Africa CDC, and the African Medicines Agency.
* Support teacher training, public education systems, and higher education cooperation.
* Invest in youth and women-led entrepreneurship, fair wages, and the care and green economies.
* Launch AU-EU youth employment and social protection dialogues.
* Promote and support universal and shock-responsive social protection floors.
* Ensure the right to food by integrating agroecological transition, farmer-managed seed systems, and food sovereignty.
Peace & Security
Sustainable development requires peace and human security. A collaborative approach fostering resilience and social cohesion is essential for conflict prevention. Initiatives for dialogue, civilian protection, and dismantling violence networks are critical. Peace efforts must be inclusive, gender-responsive, and grounded in human rights.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Strengthen humanitarian access and protection of civilians, including displaced populations.
* Increase participation of women and youth in all peace processes and accelerate the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agendas.
* Prioritize prevention through inclusion, justice, and socio-economic investment.
* Develop an AU-EU joint prevention strategy integrating governance and resilience.
* Ensure adequate and predictable funding for AU-led peace operations under UNSC Resolution 2719.
Migration & Mobility
Migration is a structural and long-term feature of AU-EU relations. It can reduce inequalities but also deepen them. International migration cannot be addressed in isolation from broader continental relations, economic disparities, and global finance systems. The two unions must work to enhance cooperation by increasing legal migration opportunities and humane policies. The focus must move from containment to cooperation.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Prioritize the protection of people—not borders—by expanding access to regular migration pathways, starting with a review of visa regimes.
* Expand safe and legal pathways for mobility focused on education and skills.
* Prevent trafficking and exploitation, guarantee access to justice, and ensure fair and dignified treatment for all migrants and refugees.
* Refrain from promoting an external agenda on migration aimed at boosting border control and containment in African countries, as this increases human rights violations and negatively impacts regional mobility.
* Implement the AU Free Movement Protocol and ensure EU cooperation aligns with it.
* Strengthen diaspora engagement and positive narratives around migrants' contributions.
* Confront xenophobia and discrimination by advancing community-led initiatives and enforcing anti-discrimination laws.
STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS
This section covers food sovereignty, the green and digital transitions, industrialization, trade and integration, and the reform of multilateral institutions.
Food sovereignty through agroecology
Small-scale food producers represent the majority of African people, the source of healthy diets, and custodians of biodiversity. African governments recognize the need to break dependence on imported food but often privilege industrial models driven by corporate interests with EU support, rather than resilient local systems.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Prioritize support for agroecology, small-scale food production, territorial markets, and farmer-managed seed systems.
* Put a halt to land and ocean grabbing and the exportation of toxic agrochemicals.
Green Transition
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation threaten livelihoods. The crises lack urgency, and climate mitigation and adaptation play only a marginal role in Summit preparations. Responses often prioritize false solutions, like carbon markets, over genuine investments in local resilience. The influence of genetically modified crops and intellectual property regimes threaten African seed and food sovereignty. A just green transition must uphold ecological rights and local sovereignty.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Commit to urgent, 1.5^{\circ}C-aligned climate action by delivering on the Paris Agreement, tripling renewables, doubling energy efficiency, phasing out and transitioning away from fossil fuels, and advancing just, inclusive, and locally driven energy transitions.
* End public support for fossil fuel investments and redirect funds toward renewable energy, halting the promotion of fossil gas, including LNG, as a transition fuel.
* Scale up adaptation and loss and damage concessional finance with clear targets; this financing must be grant-based, additional, and accessible.
* Protect biodiversity through community-led conservation.
* Recognize land rights as fundamental and protect communities against land-grabbing in investment agreements.
* Ensure that investments are implemented only after a thorough impact assessment and obtaining Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from local communities and Indigenous Peoples for land acquisition.
* Legally recognize, protect, and promote farmer-managed seed systems.
* Prohibit EU export to and importation in Africa of highly hazardous pesticides banned in Europe.
* The EU must back technology transfer, local manufacturing, skills development, and innovation partnerships to ensure green hydrogen and critical minerals fuel local industrialization and decent job creation, not extractive export models.
* Mainstream agroecology and food sovereignty.
* Reform global finance systems to unlock affordable, equitable climate finance, including championing a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt and scaling up grant-based and concessional finance.
Digital Transition
Digitalization can drive innovation with equitable access and robust governance. The digital divide limits economic participation and civic empowerment, compounded by cyber-violence and market domination by private monopolies. Data sovereignty, protection, and digital rights must accompany all projects.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Safeguard data privacy and AI ethics standards by adopting transparent governance frameworks.
* Invest in expanded public digital infrastructure and affordable connectivity for rural and underserved areas.
* Support African-led youth innovation and digital literacy.
* Enhance joint AU-EU learning on digital governance.
Industrialization, Trade & Integration
Structural transformation depends on building productive, inclusive economies. Scrutiny exists regarding private sector behavior, resource extraction framed as "green growth," and trade liberalization without adequate safeguards. Cooperation must prioritize local value addition, decent work, and circular economy principles. Africa must not repeat colonial extractivist patterns. True transformation requires relocating value chains to African regions and establishing fair partnerships. African leaders must invest in infrastructure, industrial reform, and skills development to add value locally. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers great potential, but its governance needs strong social and environmental standards. The EU's Economic Partnership Agreements need review to prevent undermining regional integration.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Grant all African countries the same access to the EU market and protection mechanisms.
* Ensure that trade and investment policies are transparent and fair, respecting African states' sovereignty over natural resources and their industrialization plans.
* Make sure these policies are beneficial to local economies through local value creation and by enforcing corporate due diligence.
* Ensure trade agreements uphold fair taxation, transparency, and include chapters on safeguarding labor rights, environment, and gender.
* Jointly support the establishment of a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights.
* Monitor and transparently report on the environmental and social impacts of Global Gateway investments in cooperation with CSOs and local communities.
* Develop local economies and champion fair opportunities by empowering local sustainable and inclusive businesses.
* Develop and protect local and regional value chains and markets in green industries, pharmaceuticals, and food processing.
Reform of Multilateral Institutions
The current global governance system does not reflect African realities, and representation in multilateral fora is fragmented. The international financial system is rigid, despite Africa's need for greater involvement in decision-making. Africa holds only 6.5% voting power in the IMF despite being the largest group of members. Reform of the UN, IFIs, and WTO is essential.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Improve African representation in global governance bodies.
* Support reform of the UN Security Council to include permanent African representation.
* Democratize IFIs and enhance African voice in debt and finance governance.
* Carry out joint AU-EU initiatives on institutional reform processes (G20, UN, OECD DAC).
* Align AU-EU cooperation with the Pact for the Future and UN80 Initiative.
FUNDING
This section addresses development finance, governance, transparency, and accountability.
Development Finance
Global economic governance and financing for development are critical. Promoting fair global finance practices that fight inequality and the climate crisis should be a top priority. The EU's cooperation is shifting toward investments in infrastructure and securing EU interests, notably through the Global Gateway strategy and the Africa-Europe Investment Package. The "win-win" investment model aims to mobilize private capital. However, the shift towards loans and blended finance risks deepening debt vulnerabilities. African economies face high debt costs and unfavorable treatment by credit rating agencies. Governments often spend more on debt servicing than on essential sectors like health and education. Debt restructuring under the G20 Common Framework has been slow and complex. Projected drops in ODA will undermine sustainable development. Mobilizing domestic resources in Africa is essential, requiring progressive tax systems and progress on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Preserve predictable and long-term grants-based financing for climate, social sectors, and public goods, and promote public-public partnerships.
* Guarantee that ODA and other financing reaches local civil society, communities, and inclusive micro, small and medium private sector actors in Africa.
* Recognize African philanthropy, remittances, and diaspora finance as complementary channels.
* Ensure that debt-based instruments respect sustainability thresholds, due diligence, and transparency standards.
* Reform global finance systems and triple public climate finance by 2035.
* Support the setting up a debt resolution mechanism at UN level, acknowledging the failure of the G20 Common Framework.
* Support the setting up of the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
* Support the establishment of an African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA).
Specifically urge EU Member States to:
* Take a constructive approach in view of the finalization of the legally binding UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation in December.
* Recognize the limitations of existing debt resolution frameworks and champion establishing a UN Convention on Debt.
* Uphold their commitment to allocating 0.7% of GNI to ODA and cancelling overdue debts.
Governance, Transparency & Accountability
Regular monitoring, dialogue, and mechanisms to convey community concerns are essential for a people-centered partnership. Accountability mechanisms that include civil society and parliaments ensure investments serve public interest. Currently, limited public data is available on funding from the Africa-Europe Investment Package.
Calls to Action for AU and EU Heads of State:
* Integrate transparency commitments into future Summit outcomes.
* Publish AU-EU partnership financial reports with impact data annually.
* Implement open contracting, public disclosure of financing agreements, and social impact audits.
* Guarantee inclusive governance and accountability by creating formal roles for civil society, youth, and communities in monitoring energy, finance, and adaptation partnerships.
* Institutionalize participatory monitoring through civil society platforms.
* Accelerate joint AU-EU action to combat illicit financial flows (IFFs) and promote fair taxation.
Note on CSEP: The CSEP (Civil Society Engagement Platform) is an independent network of civil society and youth organizations established to integrate an engagement mechanism for regular exchange in the AU-EU partnership. It is made up of over 375 individuals representing 250 organizations and is led by a team of volunteers.
