Sixth European Union - African Union Summit starts

European Union leaders and African Union member states will meet in Brussels (Belgium) for the sixth European Union - African Union Summit on 17 and 18 February 2022. The 2022 Summit will be an occasion for rethinking the EU’s approach towards Africa, in the face of major new economic developments and transformations that have recently taken place on the continent, most recently with the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which aims at increasing Africa’s trade position in the global market and to strengthen its voice in global trade negotiations.

The EU-Africa Summits are high-level events that usually take place every three years, alternating between Africa and Europe, whose aim is to provide political guidance for the future of relationships between the EU and Africa taking stock of progress made so far in shaping such cooperation.

The sixth summit was supposed to be organized in November 2020, but it has been postponed until now due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A series of pre-events starting from Monday 7 February will give the possibility to representatives of civil society, the private sector and various stakeholders from both Africa and Europe, to discuss the aspects of the Africa-EU Partnership that matter to them the most. Other themes of discussion will be treated during the Africa-Europe week, from Monday 14 to Thursday 17 February and will be focused, among others, on digital transformation, value chains, infrastructure development and women entrepreneurship.

The first meeting at continental level between European and African leaders was held in Cairo from 3 to 4 April 2000 between representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union. The Summit ended with the adoption in the Cairo Declaration, with which the leaders of the two commercial blocks expressed their commitment to come together to give a new strategic dimension to the global partnership between Africa and Europe, in a spirit of equality, respect, alliance and cooperation. The last Summit was held in 2017 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

This year it will be possible to participate remotely to the event on registration. The agenda of the pre-events and the Africa-Europe week is accessible here.