Africa Summit: The future of Africa-Europe relations

On 4 June, the annual Africa Summit of the think thank Friends of Europe took place in Brussels. Christoph Beier, Vice Chair of the Management Board of GIZ, was amongst the speakers and contributed with his experience to session III on the topic growth, jobs and economic cooperation.

The summit rased several important questions regarding the future of Africa-Europe relations such as: How can civil society actors be given a stronger voice? How can Africa and Europe expand their trade and investment links to tap into the full potential of their economic partnership? What is the potential of Africa’s creative and high tech industries? Christoph Beier stated: “We need to work with the private sector much more seriously and ask what the main reasons are that they are not investing in the African market”.

A comprehensive event report with session recordings and a picture gallery is available on the Friends of Europe website.

The summit was part of Friends of Europe´s Development Policy Forum (DPF) which brings together a number of development actors to discuss inclusive development. Besides GIZ, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the United Nations and the World Bank are among the partners.