Joint statement in view of the 7th African Union-European Union (AU-EU) Summit
Together with COMECE, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Caritas Africa, Caritas MONA, and Caritas Europa, CIDSE released today an appeal to EU and AU leaders participating in the African Union–European Union Summit, scheduled on 24-25 November 2025 in Luanda, Angola, to work together on the building blocks of an equitable partnership between the two regions.
The joint statement, entitled “For a partnership that brings justice for the African people”, advocates for “a Europe-Africa partnership grounded in mutual respect and oriented towards promoting integral human development and shared responsibility for our common home”.
Rooted in the lived experiences of our communities across both continents, the document calls for a renewed and just partnership between Africa and Europe and contains a number of concrete and forward-looking policy orientations and recommendations:
- A vision of partnership grounded in mutual respect, integral ecology and a shared responsibility for our common home;
- A concern that current AU-EU relations risk repeating some extractive patterns of the past, giving priority to short-term geopolitical or economic interests over justice and solidarity;
- A call for fair and democratic energy systems, and for partnerships that promote local value addition and equitable benefit-sharing;
- An appeal to move from EU-centric investment strategies towards people-centred development — revising the Global Gateway model to ensure transparency, local leadership, and genuine partnership rooted in sovereignty, self-sufficiency, and shared accountability.
- A call for a transformation of food systems through agroecology, the protection of farmer-managed seed systems, and an end to the export of highly hazardous pesticides;
- A plea for debt justice, recognising historical injustices and calling for a fair, transparent, and human-centred debt resolution mechanism at the UN level.
Additional resources:
SECAM Press Statement on the 7th AU–EU Summit in Luanda/Angola, 20 November 2025 (FR – PT)
AU–EU-Gipfel in Luanda: Klima- und Energieagenda muss im Zentrum der Verhandlungen stehen, joint Germanwatch and Misereor Press release, 24 November.
CIDSE contact: Manny Yap, Food and Land Officer (yap(at)cidse.org)
Cover photo: Potato farmers in Mwaro Province, Burundi. Credit Mickael Franci for Cordaid.