The European Green Deal | A New Beginning in the EU-Africa Relations?

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's (FES) Africa Department and EU Office cordially invite you to its online seminar "The European Green Deal - A New Beginning in the EU-Africa Relations?" This event is part of our series "What’s the offer? A new partnership between Europe and Africa" which FES has started in spring.

In 2020, the nature of the cooperation between the European Union and Africa is being negotiated and might profoundly change: a new EU-Sahel Strategy, a new EU-Africa Strategy, the EU-AU summit, the development of new finance instruments, the post-Cotonou agreement – all against the background of a shaky multilateralism and the challenges posed by the corona crisis. An opportunity to raise the partnership to “a new level”? An opportunity to address not only issues such as security, migration, hunger and poverty but also sustainability, the empowerment of women and youth and fair trade? The postponement of the AU-EU Summit to next year, has opened up the opportunity to intensify the African-European dialogue in the run-up to the summit.

With the European Green Deal the EU sees itself at forefront to fight climate change and environmental degradation. With the aim to transform the Union into low-carbon, climate-resilient market, the deal serves both as an environmental and growth strategy.

As the continent most vulnerable to climate change, Africa shares Europe’s interest of ambitious climate policies across the world. At the same time, economic growth and jobs are also high on the agenda of most African countries. Therefore, Africa’s pathway towards low-carbon economies might be very different facing the difficult choice between ambitious climate goals and job creation.

This roundtable will mainly focus on the question how a green transition is also an opportunity for job creation. With our guests we would like to explore how the EU Green Deal could provide a framework for Africa-EU cooperation to jointly address climate change, green transition and the creation of decent jobs.