On 10 December 2023, the Republic of Angola and the European Union (EU) held the sixth Ministerial Meeting organised under the Angola-EU Joint Way Forward (JWF) in Luanda, as a follow-up to the Ministerial Meeting held in 2020 and preceded by a Technical Meeting held on 7 December 2023. The JWF is a dedicated framework for dialogue and cooperation based on common interests and shared values.

2.    In the opening session, both sides highlighted the importance of the ongoing strategic dialogue and its role in providing a unique platform to discuss and strengthen EU-Angola bilateral relations as well as regional, continental and global issues. The Ministerial Meeting covered the spectrum of Angola-EU cooperation, including political, regional, peace and security developments, further enhancement of bilateral cooperation, trade and investment relations and cooperation in multilateral fora. Both sides continue to see the JWF as a strategic framework allowing their partnership to deepen further and tackle existing and future challenges together.

3.    Both sides noted with satisfaction the fact that this 6th Ministerial Meeting was being held on the day of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document in which both sides share a common vision.

POLITICAL, PEACE & SECURITY  

4.    Both sides underlined the importance of a reinforced political, peace and security dialogue and agreed to continue the necessary consultations and initiatives in the above-mentioned areas. They expressed their joint commitment towards good governance and enhanced democratic processes, through promoting inclusive, credible and transparent elections in a conducive political environment, and respect for international law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

5.    Both sides restated the importance of maintaining peace and security globally and regionally, and reconfirmed the obligation of all States to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force and the need for peaceful resolutions of disputes through diplomatic means, in the respect of the international humanitarian law, as well as for building trust and good neighbourly relations. They highlighted the need for continued global cooperation to minimise the global consequences of the current geopolitical context, including in particular the threat to food security, including through facilitation of market access for food and agricultural products.

6.    Angola informed about the Declaration by President João Lourenço, President-in-Office of Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Organisation of the ACP States (OACPS), on 25 October 2023, on the Republic of Zimbabwe.

7.    Both sides welcomed the new Organisation of the ACP States – European Union Partnership Agreement that was signed in Apia (Samoa) on 15 November 2023 and the last joint OACPS-EU Ministerial Council under the Cotonou Agreement.
The EU congratulated the Republic of Angola on its leadership of the Organisation of the ACP States (OACPS) and its championing of the Samoa Agreement that will be provisionally applied from 1 January 2024. They committed to encouraging other members to sign the new EU-ACP partnership (Samoa Agreement), a platform established based on reciprocal interests.

8.    Both sides recalled the conclusions of the Joint EU-Angola Human Rights Working Group session held in August 2023, created in the framework of the Joint Way Forward. They looked forward to the annual political dialogue on human rights organised under the Samoa Agreement in early 2024.

9.    Both sides expressed their willingness to work together in fostering activities of international cooperation in areas of common interest, during the Angola Presidency of the OACPS Summit between December 2022 and 2025 and of the SADC between August 2023 and August 2024. They looked forward to discussing further at the next SADC-EU Ministerial Meeting in Luanda.

10.    Both sides confirmed their commitment to further consolidate and increase the scope of their dialogue on peace and security. The EU welcomed Angola’s leadership in mediating and managing conflicts on the African continent, highlighting its key role in the ongoing Luanda process to ensure peace in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They called for the implementation of the commitments and decisions taken within the framework of the Luanda process and urged for progress in the cantonment to be implemented with the Angola’s support. Both sides reiterated their support for the Nairobi process and reaffirmed their commitment to pursue dialogue and cooperation at all levels in bilateral, regional and multilateral fora.

11.    They exchanged views on a number of specific situations, such as the security and humanitarian crisis in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique and the peace and reconciliation process in the Central African Republic. They stressed the need that all the parties in the Central African Republic step up their engagement to achieve a credible and sustainable solution to the crisis and exchanged views on the state of play of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes Region. On all these specific situations, they focused on actions to prevent and mitigate conflicts and address the root causes of instability. Whenever possible, EU-UN-AU trilateral cooperation would be promoted.

12.    Both sides agreed to continue the dialogue on security and defence. As host nation to the Zone A Centre of the Yaoundé Architecture, Angola welcomed the EU Coordinated Maritime Presences concept and the EU offered its advice and collaboration to make the Zone A Centre fully operational as soon as feasible. They looked forward to enhanced collaboration, including port visits, training exercises at sea, training on the Yaoundé Architecture Regional Information System (YARIS), improving the legal framework and operating procedures, and capacity building for improved law enforcement at sea.

13.    Both sides made an analysis of the Southern and Central sub-regions of the African Continent in the Framework of Regional Organisations, with emphasis on the African Union (AU), SADC, International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and Gulf of Guinea Commission.

14.    The EU acknowledged Republic of Angola’s efforts for peace at regional and continental level and welcomed the holding of the Quadripartite Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Luanda on 27 June 2023 with the participation of regional organisations, namely SADC, Eastern African Community (EAC), ICGLR, and ECCAS, under the auspices of the United Nations and the African Union.

15.    The EU congratulated the Republic of Angola and highlighted the appointment of His Excellency João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola, as Champion of the African Union for Peace and Reconciliation in Africa, during the 16th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa, held on 28 May 2022 in Malabo, Republic of Equatorial Guinea. Both sides expressed concern at the occurrence of unconstitutional changes of government.

16.    On the other hand, the Republic of Angola has briefly transmitted some ongoing actions for the pursuit of stability in the Southern region, namely in the context of the Angolan Chairmanship of SADC, for the period 2023-2024. These efforts include the relaunch of discussions to establish and operationalise the SADC Peace Fund and the involvement of International Cooperation Partners, considering that the political, economic stability and the national security are important for the development of the region.

17.    Regarding the Great Lakes region, the Republic of Angola also pointed out that the process of mediation of tension on the common border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Rwanda since July 2022 achieved results such as:

a)    the ICGLR Roadmap on the pacification process of the Eastern Region of the DRC (the Luanda Roadmap), adopted in Luanda on 6 July 2022;

b)    the Joint Plan for the resolution of the security crisis in the East of the DRC and the normalisation of political-diplomatic relations and cooperation between the DRC and the Republic of Rwanda, adopted in Luanda on 23 November 2022;

c)    the plan to deploy a contingent of the Angolan Armed Forces in support of peacekeeping operations and assurance of M23 cantonment areas in the Eastern Region of the DRC, protection of members of the ad hoc verification mechanism, as approved by the Angolan National Assembly, on 17 March 2023;

d)    the Joint Framework on coordination and harmonisation of peace initiatives in the East of  DRC.

18.    Both sides assessed the level of the diplomatic commitment to the return to constitutional order in the Gabonese Republic, based on political dialogue, the promotion of the rule of law, human rights and democracy, all of which are shared priority objectives for the Republic of Angola and the EU.

19.    Both sides welcomed the rotating presidency of the Republic of Ghana of the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC) at the 5th Ordinary Session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the GGC, held on 13th October 2022, in Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria, demonstrating the importance that Member States attach to the objectives of the CGG, namely:
• The promotion of peace and security;
• Socioeconomic development;
• Combating piracy;
• Protection of natural resources;
• Ensure/guarantee safe navigation.

2021-2027    POLICY PRIORITIES FOR COOPERATION

20.    Following the consultations with the Government of Angola, the EU granted a bilateral cooperation allocation amounting to EUR 275 million for the period between 2021 and 2024. This represents a significant increase compared to the previous National Indicative Programme.

It reflects the EU commitment to support the reform agenda of the Republic of Angola oriented to promote good governance, diversify the economy and stabilise the macroeconomic situation as well as the wish to strengthen further the ties between the EU and Angola. The EU informed that the bilateral allocation for the second period between 2025 and 2027 will be determined – as for all partner countries – after a mid-term review, which is currently ongoing.

21.    The discussions covered the following three priority areas, aligned with the pillars of development and impact filters of the National Development Plan: (i) Sustainable economic diversification, including agriculture and agro-logistics; (ii) Good governance and social inclusion with emphasis on rule of law,  institutional strengthening, digital and economic governance and social protection, and (iii) Human development, focusing on technical vocational education and training and higher education, including science and technology.

Both sides acknowledged the relevance of these priority areas, which are aligned with the development pillars and impact filters of the National Development Plan 2023-2027 of the Republic of Angola, as well as of the Team Europe Initiative for the development trajectory and economic diversification of the Republic of Angola, and exchanged information on the expected reforms and actions from the Government of Angola.

In this context, the sides welcomed the positive progress achieved on the projects assigned under the EU-Angola Dialogue Facility. Both sides acknowledged that a continuous dialogue at technical level is important for the implementation of the EU Multiannual Indicative Programme. Moreover, the EU confirmed that Angola is eligible to take part in actions under the sub-Saharan Africa regional programme.

22.    Both sides discussed the relevance of the Global Gateway strategy for Angola. They noted the important milestone of EU Global Gateway flagship project Barra do Dande Free Zone and Integrated Development Project, consisting of the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Administration of the Portuguese ports of Sines and Algarve and the Angolan Barra do Dande Development Society with a view to establishing a green and digital logistics corridor between these ports.

In addition, following the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the Lobito Corridor, the EU renewed its commitment to support the development of the Lobito Corridor in the Republic of Angola into a strategic commercial hub in the African continent and a catalyst for setting up regional added value chains. Underlining that the Corridor is a concrete example of the relevance of the Global Gateway strategy for Africa, the delegations noted positive progress on the ground during a visit to a section of the project in Huambo and exchanged views with local stakeholders on modalities for future cooperation.

23.    Both sides agreed on the need to pursue a common goal for global health, by working together to develop a new ambitious WHO international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response based on the principle of equity, and to prevent emerging zoonotic diseases through the PREZODE initiative with a One Health approach.

24.    Both sides noted the outcome of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) held in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022 and looked forward to the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) held in Dubai as well as the first Angola-EU dialogue on climate change after the Ministerial Meeting.

Both sides stressed the importance of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, including strengthening climate change mitigation as well as adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change, providing means of implementation, including finance, and fully implementing them without delay, based on the National Climate Change Strategy, 2022 – 2035. Both sides recognised that the COP27 was an opportunity to take stock of the progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement through the ambitious implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions and the development of Long Term Strategies.

Both sides agreed that accelerated just and energy transition toward climate neutrality is also the key solution ensuring energy security and universal access to safe, sustainable, and affordable energy, and called to take global action for tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency improvements by 2030 through a dedicated pledge launched at COP28.

25.    In an effort to address unprecedented biodiversity loss and depletion of natural resources, both sides recalled the importance of delivering on the objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and mainstreaming biodiversity in the national policies. They also reiterated their shared commitment to halting deforestation by 2030, cooperation in actions to implement the National Biodiversity Strategy 2018-2025 in line with the 2021 Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use signed at the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow. Both sides commended the work engaged by the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.

26.    In relation to oceans, the EU side underlined that under a call for proposals for Civil Society Organisations and local authorities three projects promoting blue economy and maritime security were signed in 2021 as well as a project, adopted with the Government of Angola in December 2023, to promote a sustainable blue economy in the Republic of Angola.

27.    Both sides reiterated their ongoing commitment to breaking the link between the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the sustaining of armed groups and other actors undermining security, stability and the Rule of Law. In this context, the EU welcomed the fact that Angola joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in June 2022, deepening its commitment to improve the extractive sector transparency.

Both sides recalled their ongoing support to the Regional Initiative on Natural Resources of the ICGLR, contributing to due diligence for responsible supply chains of minerals, and to actions to improve the governance of parks and protected areas.

ANGOLA-EU TRADE AND INVESTMENT COOPERATION

28.    In an effort to promote bilateral, regional and continental trade and investment flows, both
sides noted the importance of accelerating the participation of the Republic of Angola in SADC and the African Continental Free Trade Area. They recognised the importance of continuing exploratory discussions on the accession of the Republic of Angola to the SADC-EU EPA.

29.    In addition, the EU reiterated its technical and financial support for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), standing ready to share its negotiation and implementation expertise with Angola.

30.    Both sides expressed satisfaction with the organisation of the EU-Angola business fora, both the recent one held on 17 November 2023 and the one held on 24 March 2022. These events brought together representatives of private sector, public authorities and European development finance institutions with the aim at identifying how to jointly improve the business and investment climate and enhance EU investments in the Republic of Angola.

The discussion focused on sectors with potential for growth and value addition, and on those, which could contribute to the diversification of the Republic of Angola’s economy and the creation of decent jobs, especially for women and youth. Particular attention was given to green, blue and digital investments.

31.    Both sides called for swift implementation of the Angola-EU Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement, signed in Luanda on 17 November 2023. This is the first Agreement on sustainable investment facilitation that the EU ever negotiated. This Agreement focuses on improving the business environment (simpler investment procedures, more transparency, predictability and digitalisation) and ensuring more sustainable and responsible investments to the Republic of Angola, benefitting small and medium businesses as well as local and foreign investors.

The Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement will be mutually beneficial for both the EU and the Republic of Angola. It is part of the broader EU strategy to step up its engagement with the Republic of Angola to foster economic diversification, promote good governance and support human development and inclusive growth.

32.    The EU welcomed the interest of the Republic of Angola for enhanced cooperation in the fields of sustainable fisheries and blue economy, and its willingness to initiate discussions on a possible Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) with the EU. Both sides engaged in preliminary discussions about the fulfilment of the pre-conditions for a SFPA, including the assessment of the possible coexistence of the Republic of Angola’s legislative framework with a SFPA’s legal framework, the existence of a surplus of fisheries resource scientifically demonstrated and interest for the fish species. They agreed to carry on discussions at technical level.

EU-AU MINISTERIAL MEETING
33.     Both sides looked forward to the 3rd European Union-African Union Ministerial Meeting. They reiterated their commitment to the EU-AU Joint Vision for 2030, as agreed at the EU-AU Summit in 2022, on a renewed Partnership for solidarity, security, peace and sustainable and sustained economic development and prosperity.
They welcomed the progress in the implementation of the Summit commitments, notably the Global Gateway Africa-EU Investment Package of at least EUR 150 billion, the renewed and enhanced cooperation on peace and security as well as on migration and mobility, and the strengthened cooperation for effective multilateralism.

34.    Both sides highlighted the success of the 1st International Forum on Women in Leadership for Peace and Democracy, held on 25 and 26 May 2023 in Luanda, which took place under the motto “Innovation as a tool for achieving food security and combating drought on the African continent”. This is part of the 2023 Luanda Biennial – Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace and Non-Violence, a joint initiative between the Government of Angola, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the African Union.

35. The EU congratulated the Republic of Angola on holding the 3rd edition of the Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace – “Luanda Biennial” which took place under the motto “Education, Culture of Peace and African Citizenship, as Tools for the Sustainable Development of the Continent” in Luanda, from 22 to 24 November 2023. The main objective was to strengthen the pan-African movement for a culture of peace and non-violence, a prerequisite for the achievement of an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa. This will help to contribute to the implementation of Goals 16 and 17 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the UNESCO Operational Strategy and its programmes setting priorities for Africa.

36.    The Republic of Angola reiterated that in 2022, the Republic of Angola took over the 3rd Vice-Chair of the Bureau of the Assembly of the AU, and referred to the intention of the country to run for the Presidency of the African Union in 2025.

FOLLOW-UP

37.    The EU and the Republic of Angola reiterated their full intention to maintaining the Joint Way Forward as a forum for constructive dialogue and cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect, openness, and a commitment to promoting human rights, democracy, rule of law and transparency. Such a partnership allows continued future cooperation with a view to tackling bilateral, regional and global challenges in the mutual interest of the Republic of Angola and the EU.

38.    It was agreed that the next (seventh) Ministerial Meeting would take place in Brussels in 2024. The next Senior Officials meeting would take place in Brussels to take stock of the progress made and to prepare the next (seventh) Ministerial Meeting.