Reports has it that President Jammeh will be attending the EU- Africa Summit scheduled to take place in Brussels. President Jammeh who is constantly under pressure from the EU on his human rights records is said to come face to face with his adversaries. He has dismissed the EU support for Gambia as “chicken change” and insulted the British on their colonial rule on the Gambia saying that “the British has no moral right to question anybody’s human rights records”. It would be interesting to see what Jammeh will tell his EU partners when he comes face to face with them. Meanwhile Gambian dissidents are continuing their campaign at the EU for targeted sanctions against Jammeh and his regime.
The 4th EU-Africa Summit will take place in Brussels on 2-3 April 2014. It will bring together African and EU leaders, as well as the leaders of EU and African Union institutions. Under the theme “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace“, participants will discuss topics including peace, security, investment, climate change and migration. Previous summits took place in Cairo (2000), Lisbon (2007) and Tripoli (2010).
EU-Africa relations are largely based on the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, adopted in 2007. Alongside this strategy, a 2011-2013 action plan, agreed at the last EU-Africa summit in 2010, sets out concrete targets within specific areas of cooperation, such as peace and security, democratic governance and human rights.
The 2014 summit will be an opportunity to take a fresh look at the EU-Africa partnership, to highlight some of the results that have been achieved, and to explore areas for future cooperation.