Trade talks set to disrupt Africa-Europe relations.

Talks towards free trade between the European Union (EU) and Sub-Saharan African countries could seriously sour the political relations between the two continents and potentially jeopardise their Summit next April. After over ten years of negotiations, the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are due to be completed over the next few months. Failure to do so by October 2014 - a deadline unilaterally set by the EU - will mean that some African countries will lose their preferential access to the European market. Based on a new ECDPM paper, San Bilal writes in ‘This is Africa’ on the ongoing process, saying the challenge is that negotiations on EPAs, meant to be concluded on a regional basis, are still bogged down by some remaining technical issues that negotiators seem unable to overcome. It is time to take more explicit account of the political nature and interests behind this EPA process, so as to encourage more strategic diplomacy. ECDPM also released a paper asking what would it take to make an EPA economically and politically feasible for Europe and Africa?

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Don’t miss the monthly EPAs update

Keep up to date with the monthly ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) update from ECDPM. Each month in our GREAT Insights magazine we provide a unique service with the latest news on the trade talks between the EU and ACP countries. Last month we covered the The 97th ACP Ministerial Trade Committee and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting that led to the new West African customs union. The update covers West Africa, the Eastern African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC).

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Declared the UN Year of Family Farming and the AU Year of Food Security, 2014 will be particularly interesting. With key challenges in terms of policy directions, international processes, and Europe-Africa relations, conflicts can certainly arise; but next year we could also see some break-through in all these three dimensions.Expert in the CAADP process and head of ECDPM's Food Security programme, Francesco Rampa answers questions about the challenges for food security in 2014Music is Radiohem by Podington Bear

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Declared the UN Year of Family Farming and the AU Year of Food Security, 2014 will be particularly interesting. With key challenges in terms of policy directions, international processes, and Europe-Africa relations, conflicts can certainly arise; but next year we could also see some break-through in all these three dimensions.

Expert in the CAADP process and head of ECDPM's Food Security programme, Francesco Rampa answers questions about the challenges for food security in 2014

Music is Radiohem by Podington Bear

Africa-EU Relations, when space is tight, focus on the essentials.Africa-EU relations are complex and prioritising the issues that must be discussed is one of the challenges in the next year, says Faten Aggad. There is a mix of different people with different vested interests, making it difficult to find common ground in order to make progress in various discourses. The European Think Tanks group gave recommendations to the Joint Africa-EU Task Force, but this blog and podcast outlines how there may be other important issues from emerging players and the shadow of the EPAs that might come in from the sidelines.Find the full blog here: http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/challenges-2014-africa-eu-relations-when-space-is-tight-focus-on-the-essentials/Music is Radiohem by Podington Bear

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Africa-EU Relations, when space is tight, focus on the essentials.

Africa-EU relations are complex and prioritising the issues that must be discussed is one of the challenges in the next year, says Faten Aggad.

There is a mix of different people with different vested interests, making it difficult to find common ground in order to make progress in various discourses. The European Think Tanks group gave recommendations to the Joint Africa-EU Task Force, but this blog and podcast outlines how there may be other important issues from emerging players and the shadow of the EPAs that might come in from the sidelines.

Find the full blog here: http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/challenges-2014-africa-eu-relations-when-space-is-tight-focus-on-the-essentials/

Music is Radiohem by Podington Bear

In this extended challenges series podcast, Rhys Williams talks to Volker Hauck and Camilla Rocca from ECDPM's Conflict, Security and Resilience programme. Despite improved performance in peace and security matters over recent years, one of the major challenges in 2014 will be to further broaden the dialogue in peace and security beyond the more narrow security dimensions, ensuring the highest-level African-EU political engagement to conflict prevent, conflict management and post-conflict reconstruction.To read the full blog visit: http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/challenges-2014-peace-and-security/Music: Radiohem by Podington Bear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this extended challenges series podcast, Rhys Williams talks to Volker Hauck and Camilla Rocca from ECDPM's Conflict, Security and Resilience programme.

Despite improved performance in peace and security matters over recent years, one of the major challenges in 2014 will be to further broaden the dialogue in peace and security beyond the more narrow security dimensions, ensuring the highest-level African-EU political engagement to conflict prevent, conflict management and post-conflict reconstruction.

To read the full blog visit: http://www.ecdpm-talkingpoints.org/challenges-2014-peace-and-security/

Music: Radiohem by Podington Bear

Human security, sustainable economic growth, food security and job creation are all key for better Africa-Europe relations, says Obadiah Mailafia, Chief of Staff at the ACP, economist and finance expert.

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Human security, sustainable economic growth, food security and job creation are all key for better Africa-Europe relations, says Obadiah Mailafia, Chief of Staff at the ACP, economist and finance expert.

2014: year of implementation?In this Challenges 2014 series podcast we take a look at economic transformation with Dr Bruce Byiers. While it would therefore be tempting to say that 2014 will be a ‘crucial’ year for economic transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is hard to ignore the continuing challenges that are faced every year: working through political systems to put policy reforms effectively into practice and ensure developmental benefits.Intro music: Radiohem by Podington Bear

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