Tag: Africa

AIDS death rates in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have soared in the last decade while the EU continues to put the brunt of its funding for treatment and prevention in developing nations, according to experts who say this is creating a potential health timebomb on the EU’s eastern frontier.

Africa is one of the world’s fastest growing regions and should remain so in the coming years. But its progress is hampered by an ever-widening income gap, development experts said at the Brussels launch of the 'African Economic Outlook 2013' report.

China and Africa will be an important engine for economic growth in the next 20 years and Europe should seize the opportunity to engage with them strategically and not see them as a threat, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said Wednesday (15 May) in Brussels, where he attended the European Business Summit.

East African livestock herders are using mobile phones to send early warnings of drought, part of a new effort to avert disasters like the one two years ago that required a massive EU humanitarian response.

The grouping of the emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) – are cutting their foreign currency reserves in euro, having sold €45 billion of the currency in 2012, according to data gathered by the International Monetary Fund.

Africans must shake off their dependence on traditional agricultural aid from Europe and improve trade ties to address their food and poverty challenges, Nigeria’s agricultural minister told EurActiv.

The United Nations treated government ministers and officials to a meal of blemished African fruit and vegetables to highlight how perfectly edible food is being rejected by European supermarkets.

The EU should support rural public education programmes in Africa, with a special focus on women, to facilitate adoption of sustainable farming practices, says Hailemariam Teklewold, a researcher at the University of Gothenburg.

The European Union has spent billions of euros to build roads in sub-Saharan Africa that are left to deteriorate because of poor maintenance, the European Court of Auditors said on Tuesday (15 January).

SPECIAL REPORT / Agriculture remains a major threat to water quality in Europe, according to the latest report by the European Union’s environmental agency. But farmers and EU policymakers are also quick to highlight the trade-off between conservation objectives and pressure to increase food production.

EU’s collective aid levels went down last year and Germany, France and Italy are responsible for 68% of the funding gap. Meanwhile, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece have achieved less than 25% of their spending promises made to Africa, says Eloise Todd.

The recent independence of the Republic of South Sudan (9 July) marks a significant break in the history of Africa. European Union engagement with the young nation will be critical to resolving the region's difficulties, notably in terms of a food crisis, peace and ongoing problems in Darfur, argues Manuel Manrique.

South Sudan's referendum on independence offers a potential for peace in the area, but many perils lie ahead and the EU has a role to play in the process, writes Oladiran Bello from Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE in an exclusive op-ed for EurActiv.

European development funds should be tapped to build research labs and bio-banks in Africa, according to a leading African research expert. Scientists are also urging policymakers to invest in Europe's own scientific infrastructure in order to maintain global competitiveness.

The partnership will involve investments worth over €600 million to support electrification in Africa as well as renewable energy projects that would help diversify Europe's energy supplies. A further agreement could be reached on Wednesday on a Transaharan Gas Pipeline, nicknamed the 'African Nabucco'.

Plans to send several thousand troops from fourteen EU countries to Chad as part of an EU peacekeeping mission were postponed over the weekend as fierce fighting rages in the capital N'Djamena and across the country.

A major meeting of European and African leaders, aimed at boosting relations between the two continents as China tightens its grip on the former European colonies' economies, was overshadowed by Africa's refusal to sign up to comprehensive trade liberalisation agreements.

The relief over the release of the six medics on the morning of 24 July 2007, after eight years spent in prison, was mixed with unease over the transfer of vast amounts of money and other commitments the EU may have made in order to buy the benevolence of Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. 

Commission President José Manuel Barroso and EU President José Sócrates spoke out in favour of a joint EU-Africa strategy with a special focus on development, migration, as well as energy and climate change.

Europe must seek stronger ties with neighbouring and African energy exporters if it is to ensure a secure and sustainable energy supply for its energy-thirsty economy, according to the Commission.

Ministers from 30 European and 27 African nations are meeting in Rabat, Morocco, to address the issue of illegal migration. A plan of action is expected to come out of the meeting. check

Monitoring water and air quality, forecasting crop production, improving airline safety, preventing forest fires, managing crisis and humanitarian aid and preventing fraud in agriculture are just a few examples of direct benefits from satellites observing the Earth.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has emphasised that water, not biotechnology, must be the priority in the fight against food shortages in Africa.

The EU has rejected Washington's plea to reassure famine-stricken African countries that genetically modified food aid from the US is safe.