Spiegel On-Line Dec. 7th. - This weekend's EU-Africa summit is supposed to be about tackling issues such as trade, immigration and climate change. But the ongoing conflict in Darfur and the presence of Zimbabwe's President Mugabe have led to calls for human rights to take center stage. European Union and African leaders are gathering in Lisbon Friday for their first summit in seven years to discuss a range of issues, including trade, climate change and immigration. But there has been criticism from a number of quarters that the issues of human rights and the continuing conflict in Darfur are not being given enough prominence at the event. In the run-up to the summit, activists, writers and politicians have slammed the organizers for not placing the Darfur conflict at the top of the agenda. There has also been criticism of the decision to invite Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has been accused of corruption, economic mismanagement and human rights abuses. On Friday, a group of 90 European and African parliamentarians and human rights activists appealed to their leaders to tackle the crisis in Darfur, the region of Sudan where more than 200,000 people have been killed and millions displaced. The United Nations approved a UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in July but there have been doubts cast about the mission's viability due to restrictions imposed by Sudan. Earlier in the week, leading writers from the two continents, including Vaclav Havel, Günter Grass, Ben Okri and J. M. Coetzee, accused the EU and African leaders of "political cowardice" for failing to put "two of the world's worst humanitarian crises" -- Zimbabwe and Darfur -- at the top of the summit's agenda. "We expect our leaders to lead, and lead with moral courage," the 14 authors said in an open letter published on Tuesday. "When they fail to do so, they leave all of us morally impoverished."
One leader, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, did make a stand on the issue of Zimbabwe, deciding to boycott the weekend meeting because Mugabe was attending. The Zimbabwean president is normally banned from Europe for allegedly rigging his re-election in 2002. While still revered by many Africans as a liberation leader, his regime has become increasingly autocratic and unemployment and inflation are now rampant in the country. On Thursday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that he didn't want the summit to be "taken hostage" by the Mugabe issue. He said he respected Brown's decision, but added: "Life has taught me that if you are in international politics sometimes you have to meet people your mother would not like to see you with." He also pointed out that the summit's first session will be on the issue of human rights. The EU president said the summit should be a "new departure" in relations between the continents, based on equal partnership and "moving away from the mere donor-beneficiary relationship to launch a true partnership between Africa and Europe, based on common interests and tackling other global challenges." The 48 leaders from Africa and 26 from Europe will be addressing the issues of immigration and climate change, as well as energy, trade and development, during the summit on Saturday and Sunday. Immigration is one of the most important issues affecting relations between the two continents. Every year hundreds of thousands of Africans embark on perilous journeys to try to reach the shores of Europe; thousands never make it. The EU has recently touted the idea of a "blue card" scheme to encourage the immigration of skilled migrants, but that may not do much to resolve the problem of the thousands of illegal migrants, many from Africa, living in poverty in Europe.
Trade will also be a key issue at the summit. With Europe dependent on Russia for a quarter of its energy supplies, many countries are looking for other more reliable sources -- and Africa is rich in natural resources. The EU is mindful that it may have missed the boat in availing itself of these resources, given that energy-hungry China has been dramatically increasing its investment in Africa since the 1990s. However, human rights may still end up dominating the conference. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to give a keynote speech in Lisbon and Berlin has made it known that she will address the issue of human rights. Merkel has not shied away from tackling the issue in the past, for example during her visit to China this year. And as G-8 leader at the Heiligendamm summit in June of this year, Merkel chose to make Africa a central issue.
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