EU-Africa heads gather at summit

[General Duke]

EU-Africa heads gather at summit

 

Demonstrators called for action on Mr Mugabe and Darfur.

EU and African leaders are opening a summit, the first in seven years, billed as heralding a new and equal relationship for the two continents.

A wide range of issues are on the table in Lisbon; the host Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said no subject, including human rights, would be taboo.

 

Activists are urging more action to solve the Darfur crisis and confront Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

 

Mr Mugabe is in the Portuguese capital for the two-day summit.

 

He is officially banned from the EU, but was let in after African leaders threatened to stay away if he was not invited.

 

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is critical of Mr Mugabe's human rights record, is boycotting the summit in protest.

 

'No taboos'

 

Human rights is one of five key topics that leaders are due to debate at the summit.

 

Without this summit, Darfur, human rights or immigration would not be discussed

 

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates

 

 

Mugabe 'new era' dismissed

 

The others are trade, immigration, the environment, and peace and security.

 

Outside the summit actors representing African and European leaders lay "asleep" on the pavement, with demonstrators calling on them to wake up to human rights abuses in Darfur and Zimbabwe.

 

The Portuguese prime minister insisted the delegates would not ignore human rights.

 

 

Mr Mugabe's attendance has overshadowed the summit

 

"This will be a summit where we can discuss the whole range of politics, free of taboos, without any no-go areas, and we can debate every subject with total freedom," Mr Socrates told European and African business leaders meeting ahead of the gathering.

 

"Everything can be freely discussed. Without this summit, Darfur, human rights or immigration would not be discussed."

 

Mr Socrates said he hoped the conference would represent a "turning point" in relations between Europe and Africa.

 

Previous efforts to hold the meeting collapsed over the question of Mr Mugabe's attendance.

 

Britain and other EU countries have accused the Zimbabwean president of economic mismanagement, failure to curb corruption, and contempt for democracy.

 

'Riches'

 

Also on the eve of the summit, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - who has set up base in a tent outside Lisbon - called on Europe to compensate its former African colonies.

 

"The riches that were taken away must be given back somehow," Mr Gaddafi said in a speech at Lisbon University.

 

"If we don't face up to that truth, we'll have to pay the price one way or another - through terrorism, emigration or revenge."

 

The EU is hoping to draw up a number of new Economic Partnership Agreements with former African colonies and regional blocs. The World Trade Organization wants the current preferential trade deals to expire at the end of the year.

 

African representatives are concerned that the new agreements are unbalanced and that their countries will not be able to compete with subsidised European goods.

 

Some states, though, in East Africa, have already signed up to the new deals.

 

European countries are mindful of protecting their position in Africa amid rising competition from China, correspondents say.