South Africa and the European Union took a big step towards rebuilding their rather neglected relationship this week when they held their first ministerial conference in four years.
South Africa is the EU’s only “strategic partner” in Africa and one of only 10 in the world, yet a combination of factors, including a cooling of relations during the troubled Zuma presidency, have kept them from fully developing the partnership.Daily MaverickShe noted that the last ministerial conference had been in 2016 – although the last summit between President Cyril Ramaphosa and the EU’s council and commission presidents had taken place in 2018.
Eventually, they had held two preparatory meetings over the last week and then the full ministerial meeting on Tuesday. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and EU International Co-operation CommissionerKionka said the ministerial conference discussion had three basic components. The first was working together in the international sphere. The EU believes it is especially important to boost co-operation this year, as South Africa is both on the UN Security Council and chairs the African Union.
South Africa had also driven a successful resolution advancing the women, peace and security agenda when it held the Security Council presidency in October 2019. Borrell had expressed the EU’s frustration that its measures against Zimbabwe were still being characterised as “sanctions” when it no longer imposes sanctions against any Zimbabwean individual and only maintains an arms embargo against the country.Patel had made the point that the EU had enjoyed an overall trade surplus with South Africa over the past 10 years.
At this week’s meeting, Urpilainen had also acknowledged that the EU needed to “pay more attention to adaptation,” Kionka said. But she said South Africa had scored a victory on another important issue because, in response to the logistical challenges posed by Covid-19, the EU and South Africa had now all agreed to accept electronic certificates to verify the origin of all traded products and also the health and phytosanitary requirements for all animal and plant products from both sides.
Kionka said the problem now was that this issue was closely connected to the EU’s continuing trade negotiations with the UK. So any agreement which the EU made with SA could show its hand to the UK in those negotiations. Hogan had made a strong push for more free and fair trade as the driver of a post-Covid global economic recovery. Patel had concurred to a certain degree, although adding that the world should not do anything now to fight the pandemic that it would regret later on.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
LETTER: Eskom outages: future lies in regional gridThe Southern African Power Pool offers an important route towards addressing SA’s load-shedding
Read more »
Mining production rose in May, and June is likely to be the sameMining production fell year on year in May, but far less than in April, and still faces headwinds as it moves towards full capacity
Read more »
SA passes UK's Covid-19 infections, with 10,000 new cases in 24 hoursSA recorded 10,496 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, with the number of infections countrywide surging towards the 300,000 mark.
Read more »
Mining production rose in May, and June is likely to be the sameMining production fell year on year in May, but far less than in April, and still faces headwinds as it moves towards full capacity
Read more »
TFG’s bid for Edcon’s Jet stores is astute move in cash-strapped SATFG’s interest in Jet stores suggests Covid-19 is about to fuel the growth of SA’s value retail market
Read more »
EXCLUSIVE: Discovery plans to move patients around SA as pandemic acceleratesCEO vows to ensure all infected members get a bed amid concerns even private hospitals could turn people away
Read more »