Réponse au Covid-19 : L’Union européenne et la Banque Européenne d’Investissement soutiennent des secteurs clés au Sénégal pour sa résilience face à la pandémie
Aujourd’hui la Banque européenne d’investissement apporte 114,5 millions d’euros de prêt au Sénégal, soutenus par une bonification d’intérêt de l’Union européenne, pour améliorer les services d’approvisionnement de la population en eau potable, les services de santé publique et de gestion intégrée des déchets solides dans le pays.Avec ce nouveau soutien, l’appui de l’UE en Team Europe à la crise du coronavirus au Sénégal s’élève à près de 600 millions d’euros.
La Commissaire européenne pour les Partenariats Internationaux, Jutta Urpilainen, a déclaré: « Depuis le début de la crise du coronavirus, Team Europe a pris des mesures rapides et efficaces pour aider nos partenaires dans le monde entier. C’est aussi le cas aujourd’hui avec le Sénégal. Nous soutenons notre partenaire dans ses efforts de résilience économique, sociale et environnementale».
Objectifs des deux programmes
Le coût total des deux programmes est de 391 millions, et comprend la contribution de la BEI et de la Commission européenne.
- Le premier programme soutiendra l’accès à l’eau potable des populations de trois villes au Sénégal (Saint-Louis, Kaolack et Kolda), soit 634 000 habitants.
- Le deuxième programme en matière de gestion des déchets solides profitera à 20 % de la population sénégalaise et aura un impact positif d’un point de vue environnemental, économique et social, y compris sur la santé.
G7: EU to support COVID-19 vaccination strategies and capacity in Africa
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced today €100 million in humanitarian assistance to support the rollout of vaccination campaigns in Africa, which are spearheaded by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Subject to the agreement of the budgetary authority, this funding will support the vaccination campaigns in countries with critical humanitarian needs and fragile health systems. The funding will, among others, contribute to ensuring the cold chains, roll-out registration programmes, training of medical and support staff as well as logistics. This sum comes on top of €2.2 billion provided by Team Europe to COVAX.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen said: “We've always been clear that the pandemic won't end until everyone is protected globally. The EU stands ready to support the vaccination strategies in our African partners with experts and deliveries of medical supplies at the request of the African Union. We are also exploring potential support to boost local production capacities of vaccines under licensing arrangements in Africa. This would be the fastest way to ramp up production everywhere to the benefit of those that most need it.”
Coopération entre le Programme ARCHIPELAGO et l'Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM)
Le programme ARCHIPELAGO, financé par l'Union européenne dans le cadre du Fonds Fiduciaire d’Urgence de l’Union européenne pour l’Afrique - FFU / EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), vise à soutenir la création d'emplois, à la fois qualitatifs et durables, dans les pays des régions du Sahel et du lac Tchad. Il tend ainsi à répondre aux difficultés engendrées sur le continent par l'exclusion économique et sociale, la marginalisation et les situations structurelles d’inégalité qui conduisent à la migration irrégulière.
Les 20 projets sont mis en œuvre par des consortiums comprenant au total 45 partenaires africains et 40 partenaires européens (il s’agit essentiellement de structures d´appui aux entreprises et organisations professionnelles et des centres de formation professionnelle) dans un large éventail de secteurs économiques, notamment l'agriculture, l'agro-industrie, l´hôtellerie, la construction, l´électricité, l´énergie solaire, la mécanique, la foresterie, les métiers portuaires, le textile et l'artisanat.
Comment faire de l'Union Européene un acteur global?
A l’invitation de la Fondation Robert Schuman j’ai présenté lundi dernier quelques uns des principaux dossiers sur lesquels nous allons travailler cette année : apaiser les tensions dans notre voisinage, organiser un nouveau départ avec les Etats Unis, rééquilibrer nos relations avec la Chine, mettre en œuvre notre « autonomie stratégique » et relancer le multilatéralisme.
Lundi dernier, la Fondation Robert Schuman m’avait demandé d’intervenir sur le thème de “L’Union Européenne, un acteur global”. Ce fut tout d’abord pour moi l’occasion de saluer la mémoire de cet illustre ministre des affaires étrangères français qui joua un rôle décisif dans le lancement de l’intégration européenne avec sa fameuse déclaration du 9 mai 1950.
Blog post by Commissioner Urpilainen: Vaccination is not a race between countries but a race against time
Right now, the acute question is about vaccines. Team Europe is working on preparedness of our partners. We are assisting partners with technical assistance and guidance to prepare national vaccination strategies, logistics, and information campaigns. National ownership and responsibility for preparing and deploying COVID-19 vaccines remains paramount.
Efforts to guarantee equitable vaccine for everyone started early on. We hosted a pledging marathon, which raised a total of EUR 15.9 billion to develop and deploy vaccines, tests and treatments. As a result, Team Europe’s support to the most promising manufacturers in both vaccine development and build-up of manufacturing capacity helped to speed up the process, which usually takes years, into less than one year.
Why the EU needs to be a global maritime security provider
27/01/2021 – HR/VP blog – On 25 January we launched the first pilot of the new Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP) concept in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa. In addition to our existing naval operations in the Mediterranean and in the Western India Ocean, we are strengthening our role as a global maritime security provider.
On 23 January, pirates hijacked a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of West Africa, killing one crewmember and kidnapping 15. According to the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce, 195 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships have been registered worldwide last year, 33 more than in 2019.
As the second largest exporter and the third largest importer in the world, the EU rely heavily on maritime transport and infrastructure. However, secure maritime routes are not only important for us: without them, about 90% of the goods currently available are at risk of simply not reaching their customers around the world. Thus, ensuring a safe maritime environment is a global public good that need international cooperation to fend off the increasing challenges related to geo-strategic rivalries, piracy and organised crime.
Empowering Africa: MEPs vote on strategy for a new EU-Africa partnership
Europe and Africa must move away from a donor-recipient relationship, said the Development Committee, outlining its vision for a relationship between the two continents.
On Thursday, MEPs adopted a wide-ranging strategy on a new EU-Africa partnership by 20 votes, with two votes against and three abstentions. The strategy emphasises the need to go beyond simply cooperating on issues such as the green transition, energy, digital transformation, sustainable jobs, good governance and migration.
As well as addressing these areas, listed by the Commission and the European External Action Service, human development must be central to future EU-Africa relations, said MEPs, who welcome this fresh approach to the relationship. The future partnership should prioritise education, including teacher training, reducing early school leaving, and concentrate on the inclusion of girls. It should also aim to improve health care and national health systems.
Gulf of Guinea: Council conclusions launching the pilot case for the Coordinated Maritime Presences concept
The Council today approved conclusions launching the first pilot case of the Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP) concept in the Gulf of Guinea.
The CMP mechanism aims to increase the EU’s capacity as a reliable partner and maritime security provider, offering greater European operational engagement, ensuring a permanent maritime presence and outreach in Maritime Areas of Interest as established by the Council, and promoting international cooperation and partnership at sea.
The conclusions establish the Gulf of Guinea as a Maritime Area of Interest and welcome the creation of the Maritime Area of Interest Coordination Cell. The pilot in the Gulf of Guinea will further enhance the EU’s coordination capacities in strategic maritime environments.
Today’s launch of the Gulf of Guinea pilot reinforces the EU’s efforts in the region, in line with the EU’s Gulf of Guinea Strategy. It will support efforts by the coastal states and the organisations of the Yaoundé Architecture to address increasing security challenges such as armed piracy and kidnapping for ransom, which undermine maritime security and good governance of the oceans.
EU boosts sustainable cocoa production in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon
The European Union will contribute €25 million to enhance the economic, social and environmental sustainability of cocoa production in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon who are, respectively, the first, second and fifth biggest cocoa producers, generating almost 70% of the world production. This funding strengthens the partnership between Team Europe (composed of the EU, its Member States, and European financial institutions) and the three cocoa producing countries and aims at ensuring a decent living income for farmers, halting deforestation and eliminating child labour.
Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President for an Economy that Works for People, said: “The EU trade agenda is underpinned by EU values. By investing in programmes to promote fair trade and sustainability in the cocoa sectors of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Cameroon, we are strengthening our trade and investment relationships for our mutual benefit. Building the social and environmental aspects of the cocoa supply chain will deliver further economic benefits for local farmers and cooperatives.”
International Agreements in Progress - After Cotonou: Towards a new agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific states
The Cotonou partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) states was due to expire in February 2020. The then ACP Group of States – which later became the Organisation of the ACP States (OACPS) – and the EU started negotiations for a 'post-Cotonou' agreement in September 2018. This time around, the main challenge for the EU is to maintain its cooperation with the three OACPS sub-regions and to continue to promote the values enshrined in the EU Treaties. At the same time, the new partnership should take into account the United Nations' sustainable development goals, the redefinition of the EU's strategies for the regions concerned, the ACP states' new ambitions and the changing balance of power at the global level. Both the EU and the OACPS have agreed on the principle of a common foundation complemented by three regional protocols. These multi-level negotiations, the coronavirus crisis and difficulties in reaching agreement on sensitive issues, such as migration management and sexual and reproductive health and rights, prevented the new agreement from being finalised by the initial expiry date set in the Cotonou Agreement. Thus, to avoid a legal vacuum in relations, the provisions of this agreement were extended until the end of 2021. After two years of negotiations, a political deal was reached in December 2020, including on the most complex issues. The European Parliament insisted on maintaining the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly and was successful in this endeavour; in addition, three regional parliamentary assemblies will be created in the future institutional set-up of the partnership.