ETHIOPIA, EU sign strategic engagement document
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ADDIS ABABA — THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD Newspaper 16 June 2016: The Ethiopian government and the European Commission yesterday signed an agreement that will enable them enhance their partnership to a level of strategic engagement.
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, who is in Brussels, Belgium, to attend the 10th edition of the European Development Days (EDD), and European Commission President Jean Claude Junker signed the agreement.
The Joint Declaration on the EU-Ethiopia Strategic Engagement will become a comprehensive process of dialogue and cooperation in different areas of common interest. It involves annual high-level meeting at the level of foreign ministers to assess the fulfillment of the aspirations.
The Strategic Engagement focuses on six sectoral dialogue including regional peace and security, countering terrorism and violent radicalization, migration, social and economic development, investment and trade, governance and human rights, climate change and environmental cooperation.
Acknowledging the crucial role played by Ethiopia in Africa and the international community, as well as its significant economic growth and progress towards MDGs, Ethiopia and the EU are willing to jointly address regional and global issues of common interest and to enhance their partnership to strategic level.
Ethiopia and the EU look back on 40 years of bilateral relations in development cooperation, trade and economic cooperation , consolidation of democratic institutions, regional peace and security.
The EU considers Ethiopia as one of the important partners in the African continent for its active engagement in ensuring regional peace and security in Somalia and South Sudan. It also values Ethiopia’s role in leading the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and contribution to UN peacekeeping operations from Africa as well as taking part on thematic international debates such as climate change.
Ethiopia is also an increasingly important partner to EU in terms of migration, as demonstrated by the signature of a Declaration on a Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM) in Valletta on November 11, 2015.
source ENA