EU absence helped China gain clout in Africa: Portuguese EU envoy

Jun 11, 2007, 12:47 GMT

Brussels - The European Union has to blame itself for China's growing clout in Africa, a Portuguese top official said Monday, vowing to make relations with resource-rich Africa a top priority of Portugal's upcoming term as EU president.

Western nations have blamed China for turning a blind eye to misrule and corruption as it woos Africa, while Chinese banks are criticised for lending money to poor African nations that were just now emerging from heavy debt.

'We have to ask ourselves why was it possible for the Chinese all of a sudden to get so much influence in Africa? We have been absent for too long,' said Portugal's EU ambassador Alvaro Mendonca e Moura.

Portugal, which takes over the bloc's rotating six-months presidency from Germany on July 1, would make Africa a top priority for its term at the EU helmet, Mendonca e Moura told EU watchers.

'It is important that we look into a joint future with our African friends,' he said.

'Yes, I don't agree with the way China has been dealing with certain African regimes,' he said, adding: 'The role that China is playing there today made us at least wake up to the realities.' China last year signed trade deals worth some 1.5 billion euros (1.9 billion dollars) with African nations without linking them to democratic reforms and human rights, prompting European fears that the EU could lose its clout in Africa.

Mendonca e Moura said that the Portuguese EU presidency would raise the issue of human rights in every meeting with non-EU countries known for violating their citizens' rights.

'The EU is not in denial of human rights' violations, it's exactly the opposite,' he said.

Commenting on calls to ban Zimbabwe's authoritarian regime from an EU-Africa summit in December, Mendonca e Moura said that dialogue with human rights offenders was necessary to improve the situation.

'You have to call them by name and tell them face to face that they are violating the human righs of their own people,' he said, adding: 'You have to engage and to repeat and to repeat again.'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has accused Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime of 'unspeakable acts', but said that the December summit must go ahead even if he attended.

The EU has a longstanding ban on visits to the 27-member bloc by Mugabe and members of his cabinet. Recent violence against opposition leaders and human rights abuses in the country have caused further concern in Europe.

Turning to the issue of EU enlargement, Mendonca e Moura said that Turkey's troubled entry bid was 'one of the more difficult dossiers' for the Portuguese EU presidency.

While negotiations on Ankara's membership bid would continue during Portugal's term, new steps in accession talks would not be taken before Ankara fulfilled its obligation to establish transport links with EU member Cyprus.

EU governments last December took the unprecedented step of partially freezing Turkey's membership negotiations in eight policy areas after Ankara refused to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus.

The dispute stems from Turkey's refusal to recognize the Republic of Cyprus which entered the EU as a divided island in 2004. As such Ankara does not allow Greek Cypriot ships and aircraft access to Turkish territory.

Turkey has argued that it will comply with EU demands on normalizing ties with Nicosia if in turn, the EU lifts its economic boycott of northern Turkish Cyprus, which is not recognized by the international community.

However, even if negotiations pick up pace over the coming months, Turkey's EU admission is not expected before 2020.