EU Commission President and Commonwealth Secretary-General to discuss Africa strategy

The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso will visit the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on Monday, 16 October to meet Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon.

Mr Barroso and Mr McKinnon will hold talks on the Commonwealth’s proposals to assist implementing the governance elements of the October 2005 EU strategy for Africa. The Commonwealth has strong links with Africa, where it is already engaged in the area of governance and economic development. Its suggested approaches incorporate the political, institutional, socio-economic, cultural and environmental aspects of governance.

Mr McKinnon will also discuss the possibility of EU/Commonwealth cooperation in the field of development assistance to the Pacific region.

Note to editors

The European Commission and the Commonwealth are already partners in a €17 million project to strengthen the trade negotiating capacity of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries. The ‘Hubs and Spokes’ project has set up a network of senior ACP advisers based in the secretariats of regional organisations (the ‘hubs’) who are coordinating networks of advisers (‘spokes’) installed in trade ministries of individual countries.

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