Main flash-points at the EU-Africa summit

Dec 8, 2007, 1:48 GMT

Lisbon - The summit of the European and African Unions starting in Lisbon on Friday is intended to launch a new relationship between the continents, but several issues threaten to derail the talks.

MUGABE: At top of the list stands Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a man widely regarded as having destroyed his country's economy and fledgling democracy.

Mugabe has been under an EU travel ban since 2002, when the 27- member bloc ruled that he had rigged elections and launched a crackdown on opposition groups.

When the summit was announced, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he would not attend if Mugabe were invited.

But several African leaders then said they would not come if Mugabe were not invited.

In an effort to save the summit, organizers decided to invite Mugabe, but to hold a 'substantial' debate on human rights.

Critics have said that move risks handing Mugabe too much attention and dividing the summit into pro- and anti-Mugabe groups.

TRADE: The summit is expected to agree that the EU should help African producers compete in global markets, but some African states have already questioned the sincerity of that aim.

For the last five years, the EU and four African regions have been negotiating a series of trade deals known as Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) to replace earlier preferential deals that the World Trade Organization had declared illegal.

A WTO deadline on signing the new deals is set to expire at the end of the year, but so far only some states in eastern and southern Africa have agreed to them.

Some other states accuse the EU of imposing an unfair deadline and trying to strong-arm them into accepting unfair deals.

But the EU says that the deadline was imposed by the WTO and cannot be changed.

HUMAN RIGHTS: Beyond the question of Mugabe's attendance, human rights look set to be a divisive issue.

One aim of the summit is to agree on how the EU can help African states strengthen their own democracies. The draft of their final agreement says Africa and the EU share values, including 'the respect for human rights' and 'the rule of law and democracy.'

But critics - including human-rights experts within the EU's own bureaucracy - point out that countries with appalling human-rights records, such as Sudan, are also set to sign the agreement.

Delegates are due to discuss matters of human rights at a plenary session on Saturday. Given the sensitivity of the issue, organizers might find it hard to keep the debate within diplomatic bounds.

MIGRATION: Southern EU members, such as France, Spain, Greece and Italy, are facing massive numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to reach Europe. Thousands are thought to die on the way each year.

European states have said that African governments must do more to crack down on the flow.

But African states complain that the EU is committing systematic human-rights abuses against those migrants.

They also accuse EU members of deliberately targeting their skilled workers, especially medical staff, in recruitment campaigns.

The summit is expected to approve a range of measures to address the concerns of both sides, such as boosting opportunities for legal migration and allowing migrants to send money home, while cracking down on illegal migration.

SEX: The final issue that could spark serious confrontations is the question of sexual health and education.

One of the key measures that the summit is expected to endorse is a call for better access in Africa to contraceptives and better education on sexual health and rights.

That is a deeply divisive topic in Africa, where some religious and cultural groups remain deeply opposed to what they see as foreign and immoral practices.

Experts within the EU say despite the fact that the two sides have agreed in principle to adopt the measure, the chance of a last-minute disagreement cannot be ruled out.