EC and AUC – two Commissions, one vision - 03/02/2010
The recent European Commission high-level delegation visit to the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa marked a significant further step in broadening administrative co-operation.
Since its inception at the Durban Summit in 2002, the African Union (AU) has become the European Union's chief interlocutor on pan-African issues, with the AU Commission (AUC) serving as the main executive arm of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership.
The EU has been keen to support the AU's efforts through financial and practical help. A joint strategy provides an over-arching long-term framework for Africa-EU relations, with the aim of enabling the AUC to play an effective role as the engine of the African integration process, while at the same time solidifying the Strategic Partnership.
Win-win game
The EU-AU Support Programme seeks to strengthen the AU's institutional capacity and foster effective dialogue and co-operation between the AU and EU in areas of mutual interest. Administrative co-operation is an important area where both sides gain through exchange of best practice. For this reason, in 2006, Vice-President Siim Kallas and the then Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Patrick Mazimhaka, launched an exchange of officials and trainees between the two institutions with the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The overall objective of the MoU was to strengthen the institutional ties between the EC and the AUC. More specifically, the aim is to increase the understanding of the policies and the functioning of the respective institutions and to foster better collaboration between them.
In October 2008, during the organisation of the 4th EC-AUC College to College meeting in Brussels E. Mwencha and VP Kallas also signed an addendum to the MoU to strengthen the existing MoU with new areas of cooperation.
In this context, in November 2009, European and African partners enjoyed a very open and fruitful dialogue in Addis Ababa, taking stock of the implementation of the existing Memorandum of Understanding, which covers the exchange of officials and secondment of trainees, and they also identified areas for possible improvements.
EU officials say that while the African Union may be a younger institution, their respective Commissions face many similar challenges. Among these are the achievement of good geographical and gender balance among staff members, assessment of merit, and dealing with pressures from Member States.
While both sides reported satisfaction in the exchange of views, perhaps the most significant result of the meeting was the signature of two new documents, the first, an Agreement on implementation of the Commission of the European Communities-African Union Commission Action Plan for the exchange of officials, and the second a Joint Action Plan for Administrative Co-operation (2009-2010).
Signing on behalf of the European Commission was Irene Souka, Director-General for Personnel and Administration, while Abdul Hakim Elwaer, Director of Administration and Human Resource Development, signed for the African Union Commission. A special signing ceremony took place in the presence of Henrik Hololei, Chief of Cabinet of the Vice President of the European Commission and Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
Institutions to exchange staff members
EU partners say the Agreement will go a long way towards bolstering administrative co-operation and the sharing of expertise. After a first exchange in August 2009 when an expert from the AUC went in Brussels for 3 months, preparations are under way for a series of further personnel exchanges, with some AU officials seconded to DG Human Resources, Secretariat-General and DG Budget services and an expert from DG Human Resources spending a few months in Addis Ababa.
Meanwhile, the Action Plan centres on capacity building through knowledge transfer, learning, benchmarking and direct training, extending EU and AU co-operation to the development of joint training courses and seminars, exchange of information and reinforcement of dialogue between the two Commissions.
On a broader scale, the EU and AU Commissions have developed working arrangements for co-operation not only in the area of human resources management, but also with regards to:
- Budgetary planning and reporting
- Communication
- Control management, including the internal control system, accountability, risk management, and the fight against fraud and corruption
- Crisis management
- Security
- Information and communication technologies
These are based on arrangements developed under a similar initiative by the United Nations.
More to come
In addition, the European Commission has offered financial and practical help for improving the AU’s IT infrastructure, crucial for the functioning of administrative processes. The AU Commission has expressed a particular interest in a human resources IT system such as 'Sysper 2' that would deliver significant gains in efficiency and coherence for the institution and its staff.
EC officials say it is their turn to return the hospitality of their Africa Union partners, planning new high-level EU-AU meetings in Brussels in the near future.
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