In the lead-up to the 6th AU-EU summit taking place in February 2022, ACT Alliance EU, in collaboration with Caritas Africa and Caritas Europa, convened a virtual roundtable discussion on 9th November 2021 which focused on how to maximise the development impact of migration and mobility in the future Africa-EU partnership.
Participants were engaged in an informed dialogue on priorities and challenges of the ECOWAS agenda on regional mobility, migration and integration and on possible ways for the AU and the EU to cooperate and invest more in regular migration and protection of migrants’ rights.
This event report summarises the highlights of the dialogue and provides the key takeaways and recommendations both the AU and EU should build on in the future partnership on migration and mobility.
Executive Summary
The virtual dialogue held on 9 November 2021 on the migration-development nexus in the future Africa-EU partnership highlighted the need to bridge the gap between promises and progress on commitments towards building an inclusive, coherent, and holistic partnership on migration and mobility. African aspirations and priorities are about freedom of movement for skills, labor, social capital, and economic development.
The current Africa-EU Partnership is still dominated by the key priorities of the EU, which include returns and readmissions, border management and controls, and root causes of irregular migration. In order to shift towards a partnership that builds on the common interests and priorities of both parties, the EU should move away from the overfocus on restricting migration and instead prioritize building on the potential of migration as a development force in line with African aspirations.
The session noted the great need for the future Africa-EU Partnership to engage with civil society and the Diaspora, tapping proactively and meaningfully into their knowledge, experience, and expertise. This could be best improved with the creation of policy frameworks, open platforms, and fora for north-south CSOs sharing and exchange and consistent facilitation with funding.
Overall, the key takeaways from the debate centred around five priority areas:
- Build a balanced partnership for both parties
- Ensure policy coherence and respect for human rights
- Enhance meaningful engagement with CSOs and Diaspora
- Invest in intra-African mobility for sustainable development
- Invest in legal pathways for migration and mobility and in addressing the root causes of forced displacement
It was also recommended that more investment in rural areas for improved access to services, for livelihoods and well-being with a focus on youth could help reduce the reasons people have to migrate seeking better opportunities. A renewed Africa-EU partnership should aim at creating a comprehensive and balanced partnership.
The ECOWAS Commissioner representative highlighted the main challenges and opportunities for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region in implementing the Protocol on the Free Movement of People. The discussion focused on the EU migration policies, the EU-ECOWAS policy dialogue and cooperation on migration, the impact on migration policies and the free movement of people and migrant rights in the ECOWAS region and between West Africa and Europe. This contributed to the clarification of how ECOWAS and AU institutions discuss migration and mobility issues with civil society and to what extent this dialogue informs decision-making on these issues.
The African civil society’s representative highlighted the main priorities and challenges civil society encounters in relation to the ECOWAS and EU’s Agenda on migration and mobility in the region. That further identified what is needed to ensure harmonization and coherence of regional and EU policies on migration across different sectors with regard to employment and job creation, youth and women empowerment, and trade agreements. The speaker identified areas of cooperation and engagement on migration and migrants’ rights between the ECOWAS, the AU, and civil society. It suggested how the EU can be supportive of that, especially in the lead-up to the next AU-EU summit.
The EU Official Representative clarified how the EU will be supporting human mobility within Africa and explained with examples of how the EU envisages maximizing the migration-development nexus through the new Global Europe instrument. The speaker provided information about the EU’s plans on ensuring legal pathways for migration, and expanding opportunities for labour, education, and family reunification from Africa to Europe. He shared briefly how the EU institutions intend to consult civil society on migration and mobility issues in the context of the 6th Africa-EU Summit and beyond.
The European civil society’s representatives discussed the main proposals on regular migration, protection of migrants’ rights, and progress on remittances and diaspora issues applicable to the Africa-EU cooperation, such as the Kigali joint communication, the recent EU-OACPs agreement, and the new Pact on Migration and Asylum. They pointed to some needed actions towards maximizing a development-migration nexus in the new Africa-EU Partnership Framework and migration policies and how the EU can improve engagement with civil society during and beyond the AU-EU summit.
The first section of this summary report provides the background to the roundtable discussion. The second section provides highlights of the dialogue. The third section provides the key takeaways with conclusions in section four.