PREVIEW: Libya to host EU-Africa summit

By Shabtai Gold and Michael Logan Nov 27, 2010, 12:28 GMT

Berlin/Nairobi - The first summit of the European Union and Africa in three years looks set to bring a couple of Africa's most notorious leaders face to face with some of their fiercest Western critics.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are expected to attend the EU-Africa Summit being hosted by Libyan leader Moammer Gaddafi in Tripoli on Monday.

Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. He is the subject of an international arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, Mugabe is still at daggers drawn with the international community over gross rights abuses during the last decade of his party's solo rule between 2000 and 2008.

His populist policies are blamed for the economic collapse of the southern African country in 2008, before he was strong-armed by other African leaders into sharing power with the pro-democracy opposition.

Since 2002, he and around 200 members of his inner circle have been the subject of an EU travel ban and asset freeze. African leaders are calling for the measures to be lifted now that a coalition government has been put in place, but the EU is holding off until seeing more evidence of reforms.

The controversy surrounding al-Bashir and Mugabe - at a show being hosted by the controversial Gaddafi - might serve to distract from the summit's agenda.

The main topics up for discussion include trade between Africa and the 27-member EU, climate change, illegal migration from Africa to Europe and human rights.

Africa is trying to secure better conditions in the EU for its exports.

Governments say they want to make sure new proposed trade deals with the EU are fair and support the continent's long-term development goals.

Some countries, such as South Africa, are fiercely resisting the introduction of the new Economic Partnership Agreements.

The EU insists that the agreements benefit Africa and is demanding the liberalization of market access and reduction of import tariffs on EU goods in return.

No substantive resolutions are expected at the summit, with the meeting being billed more as an opportunity to generally improve relations between two continents linked by a fraught colonial past rather than clinch a flurry of accords.

Despite the growing number of well-run African democracies, from Ghana in the west and Botswana and South Africa in the south, Africa still lags the world in terms of development, governance and basic rights.

At the same time it is attracting intense interest as a investment destination from China, Brazil and other resource-hungry emerging or developed economies.

Europe has been caught napping as China ramps up its investment in Africa, displacing Germany in 2009 to become the biggest trading partner of Africa's largest economy, South Africa.

Beijing recently made a 1.3-million-dollar donation to international peacekeepers in Somalia, a country with an Islamist insurgency and a piracy problem.

Europe is keen to at least ensure the safety of its ships passing near the troubled Horn of Africa country.