One year after its communication From Cairo to Lisbon – The EU-Africa Strategic Partnership (please consult the July 2007 edition of ACA Newsletter – Education Europe) and the official launch of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy together with its operational tool – the Action Plan 2008-10, the European Commission adopted a new communication - One year after Lisbon: The Africa-EU partnership at work. The current document offers, on the one hand, an overview on the initial progress made on the overall political objectives of the Joint Strategy (the basis for EU–Africa relations) and the implementation of the eight  partnerships established through the Action Plan, highlighting, on the other hand, some of the challenges ahead.  

Similarly to its previous communication on the EU-Africa partnership, the references to education, and in particular higher education, within the text of the communication are rather limited. However, the accompanying working document, Commission contributions to the implementation of the EU-Africa Action Plan, enlists some more concrete steps and actions in the field of education, emphasising the link between higher education, research, employment and consequently, growth. For a detailed overview of these measures please consult the official documents.

The next summit on EU-Africa cooperation will be held in Africa in 2010, with an overall assessment of the eight sectoral partnerships contained in the 2008-10 Action Plan.

European Commission
Working document