Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2018

The paper “Strengthening the EU’s partnership with Africa - A new Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs” was presented by the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in his State of the Union speech on 12 September 2018⁴. The aim of this Alliance is to enhance the economic dimension of EU-Africa relations by emphasizing the strengthening of human capital, investments and intra-African and EU-Africa economic integration. At the ministerial level, the paper was addressed for the first time at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in its development configuration on 26 November 2018. At that meeting, Minister Schneider congratulated the Commission on the paper and emphasised that the enhancement of economic cooperation between Europe and Africa was in effect one of the key areas which would generate more growth in Africa and would in particular enhance the implementation of the sustainable development goals. A more strategic alliance with Africa is also at the heart of Luxembourg’s development cooperation’s new general strategy, which actively encourages innovative partnerships in order to increase the effect of public investments while ensuring that market distortions are avoided, and to ensure that the impact on the least developed countries and their populations remains at the heart of our work.