7th EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF) Joint Declaration of the Business Organisations
The 7th EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF) took place on the 16th and 17th of February 2022 in Brussels. The Forum, which was held back-to-back with the 6th AU-EU Summit, constitutes a key contribution to the further development and operationalisation of the new Africa-EU Strategy. It brought together representatives from the African and European business communities as well as high-level representatives from political institutions and other stakeholders to review all strategic aspects of the EU-Africa relationship and to make concrete proposals to the African and European heads of state and government for a new model of partnership. Discussions revolved around the theme “Building stronger value chains for sustainable growth and decent jobs”.
The Forum was jointly promoted and sponsored by the European Commission and the African Union Commission and organised in partnership with the Pan-African business organisations Africa Business Council, Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, AfroChampions, Business Africa, and the Pan- European business organisations Business Europe, European Business Council for Africa and the Mediterranean, Eurochambres and European Entrepreneurs CEA-PME.
The EABF was the culmination of months of preparatory discussions between business representatives and public sector stakeholders from the EU and Africa that prepared the event, assisted by 12 thematic working groups. The members of each of these working groups drafted valuable proposals for their respective areas, reflecting the discussions in the working groups, which are annexed to this business declaration. The Forum, which reflected on the urgency of needing to respond to the on-going pandemic, and on pushing back against the rising tide of poverty, embodied a productive and wide-ranging exchange of views on issues of climate change, trade and investment, women and youth, the environment and sustainable development, good governance based on partnership, shared responsibility and mutual benefit. As representatives of the European and African business communities, we agreed to further strengthen our bilateral relations and look forward to continuing our business-to-business and business- to-government cooperation and dialogue in the most efficient and constructive manner.
