The African continent is extremely diverse, and offers enormous development potential. In the run-up to the EU-Africa Summit, the Chancellor and the Senegalese President explored various cooperation options.

After the meeting the Chancellor said that it was in Germany’s interests to step up relations. This means that it is important to make progress on trade agreements with the various regions of Africa. Transparent, sustainable development assistance is the precondition, added the Chancellor. Legal certainty and anti-corruption drives play an important part in this.

Reliable partner

For Germany, Senegal remains a reliable partner in a regional environment which is not always easy. "For 25 years we have been involved in military cooperation based on mutual trust," reported the Chancellor. In view of the training mission in Mali, this is now particularly important, since German soldiers involved in the training mission are currently stationed in Senegal.

Senegal has a long democratic tradition and enjoys political stability. Long-standing development cooperation links Germany and the West African state. Senegal is a partner country of German development cooperation, and benefits from sectoral and regional programmes. Cooperation focuses on the energy sector.

Senegal’s President also met with Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller and visited the German-African Business Association.

Development cooperation
Projects and programmes in the fields of sustainable economic development and decentralisation, the priority areas to date, are to be wound up by 2015 and handed over to the Senegalese side. Thereafter cooperation is to focus on renewable energies and energy efficiency.

The most recent German-Senegalese government negotiations were held in November 2012. A sum of 55 million euros was pledged for the period 2013 – 2015. Of this sum, 34 million euros was earmarked for financial cooperation and 21 million euros for technical cooperation.

Win-win situation

After the meeting, President Macky Sall expressed his hope that the partnership would benefit both sides. Africa offers huge opportunities, but desperately needs more investment. Europe is in a position to invest.

On 2 and 3 April, the Chancellor will attend the fourth EU-Africa Summit in Brussels. Almost 90 delegations from the EU member states, Africa, and the United Nations are to participate, along with observers.

The motto of the summit is "Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace". It is intended to send out a long-term signal of equal partnership and cooperation. Issues such as peace and security, education and training, growth and prosperity, good governance, democracy, development and climate change mitigation will be at the heart of the summit.