The European Commission wants a new ‘Africa – Europe Alliance’ to deepen economic relations and boost investment aimed at creating up to 10 million Africa-based jobs in the next five years.
“Africa does not need charity, it needs true and fair partnership. And we, Europeans need this partnership just as much. Today, we are proposing a new Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs between Europe and Africa. This Alliance, as we envision it, would help create up to 10 million jobs in Africa in the next 5 years alone,” said President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the latest plan is different from all the past announcements on Africa.
“In these years we have started to build a real partnership of equals with Africa. We are already strong political partners, the next step is to be true economic partners and deepen our trade and investment relationship. We want to give young people opportunities to achieve their aspirations. Boosting responsible investment in Africa is a win-win for both sides.”
"The idea of this package is to focus on the opportunities and the common interest we have to work together in partnership on economic development" @FedericaMog on new Africa-Europe Alliance #EUAfrica #investGlobal #SOTEU pic.twitter.com/CpGaUschSC
— European External Action Service – EEAS 🇪🇺 (@eu_eeas) September 14, 2018
In the next budget period, the EU plans to increase funding to Africa to $46.5 billion.
Read: Africa, Who Dares Wins
Expected results from the proposal include:
35,000 students and academics from Africa benefiting from Erasmus+ by 2020. A further 70,000 will benefit by 2027, reaching a total of 105,000 in ten years.
750,000 people will receive vocational training for skills development.
30 million people and companies will benefit from access to electricity
24 million people will have access to all season roads through our leveraged investment in transport infrastructure.
3.2 million jobs in Africa are expected to be created under the External Investment Plan just by the Investment Programmes focussed on small and medium-sized enterprises.
With a guarantee of €75 million, a single investment programme from the External Investment Plan will generate 800,000 jobs.
The EU is Africa’s closest neighbour and biggest investor, the main trading and development partner and a key security provider.
The EU is providing €31 billion in Official Development Assistance to Africa between 2014-2020 to boost Africa’s economy to give young people in the continent a chance to build a future, to ensure food security and access to energy, and to anchor good governance and respect of human rights.
