EU invests over €100 million in African economic integration
The European Commission has adopted a set of projects in support of African economic integration, with initiatives worth €101.5 million, to focus on infrastructure, intellectual property rights and improving Africa's climate investment.
Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, said:
“Supporting an increasingly integrated African market is one of the pillars of our Africa-Europe Alliance. With these initiatives worth €100 million, the EU helps to improve key infrastructure, to promote intellectual property rights and to facilitate a conducive investment climate. These elements underpin the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, an ambitious project by our African partners that will boost intra-African trade with positive effects for economies across the continent”.
These new projects are the first batch of 2019 actions financed by the Pan-African Programme. The bulk of the funding for 2019 (€90 million) will be for blending projects, which are part of the EU External Investment Plan (notably its Africa Investment Platform).
They will support continental and cross-regional connectivity, through dedicated projects aimed at improving sustainable trans-regional transport and energy infrastructure. This represents a stepping-stone to boost economic integration in Africa.
The initiative “Intellectual Property Rights for Africa” (€7 million) will promote the value and benefits of intellectual property protection in Africa, strengthen African national and regional intellectual property organisations and support the negotiations of the African Continental Free Trade Area protocol on intellectual property. This initiative will have a positive impact on intra-African trade, investment and job creation.
The third programme (€4.5 million) will reinforce the investment climate between African and EU stakeholders from the public, private, academic and research world via a series of high-level strategic structured dialogues. This initiative nurtures the strategic sector dialogue foreseen in the Africa-Europe Alliance.
