Meeting with EBOs in preparation of “Structure dialogue” meeting with DG DEVCO Brussels, 20th June 2019 EBCAM office

Participants:

Participants:BUSINESS EUROPE: Benedikt Wiedenhofer – Adviser – International relations department EUROCHAMBRE: Dominic Boucsein - Head of International Trade and Foreign Policy CEA-PME: Prof. Horst Fischer, Associate Director Economic Cooperation (video conference) EBCAM: Alexandros Spachis, Secretary General; Valentina Santoro, COO, Petros Makris-Kourkoulos, incoming COO.

1.State of play of the EIP

a) third pillar: outreach events, SB4A, Investment climate (recently finalized “Handbook on improving of the Investment Climate through the EU Action” is attached)

b) first pillar

c) possible presentation/intervention of IFIs on the EIP Guarantees

Everybody agreed on the importance of an update on the EIP’s state of play by the EC. Benedikt communicated the BusinessEurope’s recent paper “A better investment climate in Africa”.

2.Next EU Africa Business ForumThis would be the core subject for all EBOs. The idea is to prepare a non-paper for the meeting with DG DEVCO on 5th July 2019 with the main points to discuss:

• Early involvement of the EBOs in the organization of the Forum (maybe by maintaining the format of the “Structure dialogue” and dedicate it to the EABF)

• Service proposed: design of the programme, the structure, the panels, and the identification of speakers; possible organisation of the logistics through one or more of our member associations (with remuneration by the EC services)

• Elaboration of the Forum’s joint declaration

3. State of play of “Post Cotonou”BusinessEurope noted that it seems that the negotiations are stalling (cfr. Euroactive’s article here), mainly because of discrepancies in the interests of DG DEVCO and the EEAS. It was, therefore, agreed to ask the EC immediately by email to invite to the next meeting of the EBOs with EU on 5 July 2019 the EEAS for a presentation on their Pan-African strategy, including in the context of Post-Cotonou.

4. State of play of EU - African Alliance and Sectoral Tasks ForcesEurochambres has been already invited by DG ENER to participate to the energy taskforce, which has already met several times and is preparing its recommendations to be finalized after the summer break. The structure of the taskforce is similar to what was planned, i.e. political representatives introducing the session with a welcome speech, followed by specific discussion by the other members from the business, academic, institutional world. Since the other EBOs were not contacted to participate to any other taskforce, we will ask DEVCO the list of members as well as the interrelation between these taskforces (which are limited in time and scope) and the “Indabas” (which should be a more permanent structure?).

5. AOBNo AOB points raised.