EU-South Africa: a partnership for our people, prosperity and peace

Declaration by Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council and Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission on the occasion of the fifth EU-South Africa Summit, Brussels, 18 September 2012

We, the leaders of the European Union (EU) and South Africa (SA), meeting today in Brussels, reaffirm our commitment to a Strategic Partnership based on shared values and interests, including the promotion of peace and security, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and inclusive sustainable development across our regions.

A Partnership for Peace and democracy

We are resolved to pursue our common values and interests, our joint belief in solidarity, democracy, human rights and multilateralism. We believe that the consolidation of our partnership is of great significance for peace, stability and development and serves the fundamental and strategic interests of both sides. As an important platform for dialogue and an effective mechanism of practical cooperation, our Strategic Partnership has played a unique role in promoting EU-South Africa relations.

In this perspective we agree today to:

Provide joint leadership to prevent and resolve conflicts. We have a joint responsibility to provide leadership in helping countries live in peace, resolving conflicts where they exist and fighting terrorism. We will continue to work together in responding to the challenges of conflict, war and insecurity. Furthermore, recognition is given to all international, continental and regional initiatives, resolutions and treaties aimed at resolving issues of maritime insecurity, in particular piracy.
We once again commit to cooperate in ensuring that the notion of the freedom of the high seas and innocent passage is assured through reinforcing our coordinated joint efforts, including through building up local maritime capacity in support of the SADC Maritime Security Strategy and the use of the Long-Range Identification and Tracking System (LRIT). To this end, South Africa looks forward to hosting an EU technical team in November 2012 to further develop the modalities of this cooperation.

We welcome the completion of the transition process in Somalia. The creation of a new Parliament and election of a new Speaker and of a new President are a landmark in Somali history, and we urge the rapid appointment of a full government.
Highlighting our continued support to AMISOM, we welcome the progress made and commend the troops for their brave efforts in delivering security in Somalia. Ultimately, responsibility for providing security should rest with Somalia’s own security institutions. We therefore underline the importance of a strong, coordinated international commitment to the development of the Somali security sector, under the guidance of the Joint Security Committee. We re-affirm our joint commitment to support the process of change and to help consolidate a new representative government that will allow all Somalis to enjoy the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to have the economic opportunity to create jobs and build prosperity on legitimate economic activity. We agree to cooperate in helping Somalia establish transparent and effective financial administration.

The Sahel is also a political priority on our agenda. We remain engaged and committed to contribute to the development of a peaceful stable and prosperous Sahel region, addressing comprehensively the region’s challenges in close coordination with the countries of the region and with ECOWAS. Both the EU and South Africa support the UN Security Council Resolution 2056 on Mali, which places a Government of National Unity and a road map towards democratic elections at the heart of any solution.

We are encouraged by the strong determination of the people of North Africa and the Middle East to take the road to democratic transformation. We are determined to ensure that Syria finds a way out of its current spiral of violence. We reiterate our full support to the UN-League of Arab States Joint Special Representative for Syria, Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi in bringing an end to the fighting, finding a negotiated solution to the crisis and supporting a political transition towards a free and democratic Syria. We urge united action by the international community and the UN Security Council.

In Zimbabwe, we welcome progress enabled by SADC’s engagement and South Africa’s facilitation. This has contributed to the EU’s decision to relax its targeted restrictive measures against individuals and companies in February and suspend measures limiting EU development cooperation in July. We urge all parties to maintain the momentum for reform and implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).We fully share the objective of contributing to a peaceful and stable Zimbabwe based on democratic legitimacy. We urge all Zimbabweans to support the calls for an end to violence made by all parties of the Government of National Unity and to work towards a peaceful and credible constitutional referendum, which will represent an important milestone towards free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections.

We reiterate our joint commitment to promote peace and prosperity in the African continent and look forward to closely collaborating with African Union Chair-designate Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in particular to advance our joint priorities under the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership.

We look forward to working closely together, especially in the context of South Africa’s Chairmanship in 2013, with the objective of ensuring the integrity and reform of the Kimberley Process.

• Strengthen our partnership in the area of peace and security. We believe that the Agreement between the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the Government of South Africa for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy is a further important step. It represents a unique opportunity to establish synergies for common work between the EU and South Africa on Nuclear Safety in the context of the implementation of the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) on non proliferation and cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.
We continue to express full support for the negotiations of an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on the basis of the results of the July 2012 UN ATT Conference and remain fully committed to an early conclusion of negotiations.
We welcome the formalisation of our human rights consultations covering a broad and comprehensive set of issues and look forward to the first such dialogue by the end of 2012. Beyond this formal process, both South Africa and the EU remain strongly attached to close and early consultations in Geneva, New York and Pretoria on a broad range of issues – including discrimination, gender, children rights, and private military companies.

A Partnership for Prosperity
We reviewed the current difficult international economic juncture, and agree on the need to:
• Contribute to accelerate global economic recovery and work together in the G-20 to implement the Los Cabos Framework for jobs and growth and the standstill pledge on trade and investment restrictive measures, renewed in Los Cabos, while maintaining financial regulatory reform at the heart of G-20 work. We further commit to work together to ensure a coordinated approach to meeting our joint commitments on financial regulatory reforms, and try to limit the spillovers or unintended international consequences of domestic policy decisions. We will work to strengthen demand where appropriate with a view to support strong, sustainable and balanced growth in parallel to pursuing responsible fiscal policies. We recognise the importance of tackling unemployment, particularly among young people and of taking steps to stimulate entrepreneurship, investment and employment creation. We are firmly committed to open trade and investment, and resisting protectionism in all its forms, which are necessary conditions for sustained global economic recovery and development.
An essential part of economic recovery and growth is to stimulate international trade and development. To this end, we reaffirm our commitment to the open, transparent and inclusive rule based trading system embodied in the WTO. In this regard we reaffirm our commitment to continue to work towards a conclusion of the Doha Development Round.
We also reaffirm the importance of reaching an agreement to finalise the negotiations of the EU-SADC Economic Partnership Agreement, which is mutually beneficial, enhances growth, and generates jobs. We reiterate our strong commitment to conclude these negotiations as a matter of priority. We are convinced that solutions to the pending issues can be found. To this end, we urge our negotiators to expedite their work.
We welcome the inauguration of the EU-South Africa Business Forum held in Brussels on the 17th September 2012. In this respect, we take note of the recommendations in the joint declaration and underline the importance of a reinforced dialogue between their respective business communities, on critical issues that affect trade and investment, infrastructure and the importance of youth employment and skills development.

• Tackle critical global issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, energy and resource security, major infectious diseases and massive natural disasters because they pose increased threats and challenges, in particular to the African continent.
We congratulate South Africa on successfully hosting the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban in December 2011 and believe that all parties should faithfully implement all the elements of the Durban outcome including the consensus embodied in the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. We reconfirm our commitment to strengthen the comprehensive, effective and sustained implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, and are determined to jointly support the process of international cooperation on climate change in order to adopt a protocol, legal instrument or agreed outcome applicable to all Parties, no later than 2015 and to come into effect and be implemented from 2020.
We stress the importance to tackle international civil aviation emissions acknowledging the principles of non discrimination and equal and fair opportunities to develop international aviation set forth in the Chicago Convention and the principles and provisions on Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR and RC), and with developed countries taking the lead under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol; and agreed to cooperate to take action forward in multilateral fora, including the UNFCCC and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
We acknowledge with concern the need to increase global action on mitigation by all Parties, bearing in mind the principle of CBDR and RC, in order to address the so-called mitigation gap to reach the common goal of keeping global temperature increase below 2°C, as well to deploy more efforts on adaptation.
We intend to build on the discussions at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. We are confident that collectively the international community will undertake concrete actions to implement the outcome of the Conference. We are committed, under the leading role of the UN, to implement actively all the strands of the Rio+20 outcome document, including the green economy and all the areas of work in the framework of action.
1. In both meetings, the common interests of Europe and Africa stimulated close cooperation between us in achieving progressive outcomes. We will pursue this cooperative approach in the run up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha in November 2012 and in the implementation of the Rio+20 outcome document.
• Consolidating our partnership to stimulate growth and employment: 1 January 2012 heralded the full implementation of our bilateral Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA), which provided increased opportunities for two-way trade. We welcome the 128% increase in total trade between the EU and South Africa since the entry into force of the TDCA in 2004. In the same period, EU’s Foreign Direct Investment in South Africa has grown five-fold. We will work to implement policies to further promote bilateral trade and investment to our mutual benefit, helping to create more job and growth opportunities. This would contribute to further develop balanced trade relations.
The growing cooperation between us in the fields of science, technology and space including prospects emerging in radio astronomy produces helpful spin-offs in terms of innovation that can help stimulate our economies and enhances our efforts to jointly address global challenges. In this context, we acknowledge the success of cooperation between the EU and South Africa under the Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement and welcome the activities which will be co-organised to mark the 15th anniversary of its entering into force. One of the examples of this successful cooperation is the Conference presenting the next phase of the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).
We especially support the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s calling on business, governments, and civil society to achieve Sustainable Energy for All and ensuring universal access to modern energy services by 2030 and applaud the Africa-EU Energy Partnership initiative to promote this initiative.
We encourage further work under the EU-South Africa Energy Partnership cooperation on coal, clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage.
A People’s Partnership
We are committed to:
• Foster people to people ties: Bringing closer the peoples, civil society and Parliaments of the EU and South Africa is a key priority in order to increase mutual understanding. Development cooperation between the EU and South Africa continues to be marked by the objective of ensuring value added through innovation, pilot programmes, capacity development, and the sharing of skills and knowledge, as highlighted by the Conference on Innovation for Poverty Alleviation, organised as side event to this Summit. These objectives have been translated in 2011-2012 into ambitious programmes focusing on employment; capacity development for service delivery and social cohesion; governance; regional and pan-African cooperation; as well as support to the implementation of the TDCA. We welcome our enhanced cooperation in the field of education and training and the implementation of the “Erasmus Mundus”- programme of academic exchange between South African and European Universities – to the mutual benefit of a growing number of post-graduate students and academics. Both sides acknowledge the usefulness of the ongoing and increasingly rich dialogue on migration, noting the opportunity represented by the renewed EU “Global Approach on Migration and Mobility” to further enhance the current cooperation between the EU and South Africa in this field.
• Consolidate our partnership for the benefits of our respective peoples, our regions and the world: The EU remains committed to sustainable and inclusive development in South Africa. For 2012-2013, we agree that the EU will continue to support South Africa’s national development priorities to foster cooperation and exchange with focus on the creation of jobs and economic development and fight against poverty.
In all these areas, we pledge ourselves to continue and intensify our partnership for the benefits of our respective peoples, our regions and the world.