Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates and Foreign Minister Luis Amado were not going to greet delegates when they arrived for the European Union- Africa summit in Lisbon ostensibly because there were too many delegates but United States embassy officials said this was probably to avoid sahking hands with President Robert Mugabe which could be captured by eager cameramen.
Portugal was under pressure to stop Mugabe from attending the summit but African countries said they would not attend if Mugabe was barred.
Some EU countries led by Britain said they would not attend if Mugabe was present.
Reports said the EU had developed “contingency plans” for an appropriate response if Mugabe got out of line during the summit proceedings.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 07LISBON3106, EU-AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT SCENESETTER
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|
Reference ID |
Created |
Classification |
Origin |
VZCZCXRO5500
RR RUEHDU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHSR
RUEHTRO
DE RUEHLI #3106/01 3401704
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 061704Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY LISBON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6479
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LISBON 003106
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PO PREL XA EUN
SUBJECT: EU-AFRICAN UNION SUMMIT SCENESETTER
Classified By: POL CHIEF TROY FITRELL, REASONS 1.4 (B,D)
¶1. (U) Summary. More than 100 delegations will be in Lisbon
for the EU-African Union Summit December 8-9, representing
every state in both organizations, plus a few more. This
event will consume nearly 20 percent of Portugal’s entire EU
Presidency budget. Participants will adopt the Strategic
Partnership document and the First Action Plan, developed
jointly over the last eight months by AU and EU working
groups. Portugal’s main objective is to put in place
structures that ensure regular and sustained interactions
between the two continents across a range of key sectors.
Specific country situations (Zimbabwe, Sudan) are not on the
formal agenda, although we have heard some discussion of
crisis situations may occur on the margins. End summary.
¶2. (C) To the Government of Portugal (GOP) the EU-African
Union Summit is the crowning achievement of its EU
presidency. The GOP inherited most presidency issues — such
as Kosovo and the finalizing of the EU reform treaty — but
this summit is the one for which the GOP was the driving
force. The GOP had also pressed for the holding of the
first-ever EU-Brazil Summit at the outset of the presidency,
but even GOP officials privately admit that it was little
more than a photo opportunity. The EU-AU Summit, by
contrast, should establish an architecture for relationships
between the two continents.
¶3. (U) The GOP recently needed to pass a 10 million euro
supplemental appropriation to address last minute summit
costs. Despite having already hosted 3,400 meetings over six
months, this two day summit alone represents nearly 20
percent of Portugal’s EU Presidency budget, signifying its
importance to the GOP.
Descending on Lisbon
——————–
¶4. (U) More than 100 delegations are expected to gather in
Lisbon December 8-9 for the EU-African Union Summit. The
delegations include the 27 EU member states, 52 AU member
states, Morocco, the African Commission, the European
Commission, European and Pan-African parliamentary bodies,
and specialized agencies, plus Norway and Turkey, which will
be invited to participate in select discussions. Each
official delegation includes 15 participants, although many
delegations are traveling with more than 100. Lisbon’s
top-end hotels are booked to capacity, even with Libya’s
Muammar Qaddafi staying in his traditional tent.
¶5. (U) Not all countries will be represented by the head of
state/government. The United Kingdom, for example, will
likely be represented by a former junir minister in protest
of the attendance of Zimbawean President Mugabe, who is
under EU travel retrictions that were waived for the summit.
The Cechs will send their Foreign Minister. G-8, EFTA,and
BRIC nations were invited to attend as obserers, although
those invitations are only for theopening and closing
ceremonies.
¶6. (C) Neithe Prime Minister Socrates nor Foreign Minister
Amao will greet arriving delegations, ostensibly becase
there are too many delegations, but also, we uspect, to
avoid having a handshake with Presidet Mugabe captured by
eager cameramen.
Mugabe’ participation
———————-
¶7. (C) GP officials told us early and often that this summt
was their most important priority. They belieed, however,
that Mugabe’s participation was theprice of having the
summit, as some African leadrs made it clear they would not
attend if particuar leaders were barred.
¶8. (C) GOP leaders, incuding Foreign Minister Amado, tried
to mitigate the political fallout from the long-expected
invitation by making public statements that they hoped Mugabe
would choose not to come. Privately, however, they told us
that they knew he would accept the invitation but that the
EU-AU relationship could not be held hostage to problems with
one particular leader.
¶9. (C) A senior Lisbon-based diplomat from an EU member
state told us recently that several EU leaders would, in
their addresses, express concern about the situation in
Zimbabwe. He added that the EU had developed “contingency
plans” for an appropriate response if Mugabe got out of line
during the summit proceedings.
So let it be written, so let it be done
—————————————
LISBON 00003106 002 OF 003
¶10. (U) As is necessary in a short gathering of so many
delegations, the main work of the summit will be to put a
formal imprimatur on two documents: a “Strategic Partnership”
and a “First Action Plan.” The first stresses, in very
general terms, the importance of partnership between the two
continents while the second identifies eight areas of
collaboration. The member state presidencies of the EU and
AU led the development of these papers in conjunction with EU
and AU institutions. (Note: EUR/ERA has copies of both
documents for those who desire more detail than included in
this cable. End note.)
¶11. (U) The working groups that developed the Strategic
Partnership and the First Action Plan, including the 9th
Africa-EU Ministerial troika meeting on October 31 that
endorsed the two papers, discussed specific crisis situations
in Africa and Europe (Sudan, Somalia, Chad/Central African
Republic, etc. in the former; Kosovo in the latter), but
individual country situations are not addressed in the summit
documents.
¶12. (U) For that reason, Zimbabwe, Darfur, and other crisis
situations are not formal items on the summit agenda.
(Note: This, despite the Portuguese presidency’s repeated
assertion that the value of inviting Zimbabwe to the summit
was to hold President Mugabe responsible for his actions
against his own people. End note.) During the discussions
of the eight partnerships, which include human rights and
security components, one representative each from EU and AU
member states will make an address. There will be a limited
right to comment by any participating state, at the
discretion of the chair.
¶13. (C) In addition to the theoretical discussions, the
summit documents — indeed, the summit itself — focus on
putting in place the architecture of future cooperative
engagement. The timing of future summits (once every three
years), the strengthening of institutional bodies, and the
definition of the roles of those institutional bodies
comprise the main expected accomplishments of the EU-AU
Summit.
Eight Key “Partnerships”
———————–
¶14. (C) The summit documents identify the following eight
areas — or “partnerships” — for sustained collaboration:
Peace and Security: Enhance dialogue on challenges to peace
and security; Full operationalization of the African Peace
and Security Architecture; and Predictable funding for
African-led Peace Support Operations.
Democratic Governance and Human Rights: Enhance dialogue at
global level and in international fora; Promote the African
Peer Review Mechanism and support the African Charter on
Democracy, Elections and Governance; and Strengthen
cooperation in the area of cultural goods.
Trade and Regional Integration: Support the African
integration agenda; Strengthen African capacities in the area
of rules, standards, and quality control; and Implement the
EU-Africa Infrastructure Partnership.
Millennium Development Goals: Ensure the finance and policy
base for achieving the MDGs; and Accelerate the achievement
of the Food Security, Health, and Education targets of the
MDGs.
Energy: Implement the Energy Partnership to intensify
cooperation on energy security and energy access.
Climate Change: Build a common agenda on climate change
policies and cooperation; and Cooperate to address land
degradation and increasing aridity, including the “Green Wall
for the Sahara Initiative.”
Migration, Mobility, and Employment: Implement the
Declaration of the Tripoli Conference on Migration and
Development; Implement the EU-Africa Plan of Action on
trafficking of human beings; Implement and follow up the 2004
Ouagadougou Declaration and Action Plan on employment and
poverty alleviation in Africa.
Science, Information Society, and Space: Support the
development of an inclusive information society in Africa;
Support S&T capacity building in Africa and implement
Africa’s S&T consolidated plan of action; Enhance cooperation
on space applications and technology.
Comment
LISBON 00003106 003 OF 003
——-
¶15. (C) Some observers have commented that the only success
from the first — and only — EU-Africa summit in 2000 was
merely that it was held. The Portuguese have somewhat more
ambitious objectives this time around, with their sights set
on establishing an architecture that will institutionalize
and deepen the EU’s relations with Africa. Indeed, the very
act of developing the summit documents strengthened nascent
African Union institutions and intensified their
collaboration with EU counterparts. In the short-term,
however, it is not encouraging that the summit’s human
rights/good governance discussion will allocate time to the
recovery of African cultural goods but not to the genocide in
Sudan or to Robert Mugabe’s systematic crushing of political
dissent.
Stephenson
(49 VIEWS)
