On 8 March, UNOAU met with a visiting EU Delegation led by Mr. Nicola Bellomo, Head of Division at the European External Action Service (EEAS). The objective of the meeting was to follow-up on the commitments made during the EU-AU Summit held in 2022, in particular on multilateralism, and to compare notes on issues such as financing AU-led Peace Support Operations (PSOs) authorized by the UN Security Council (UNSC). The meeting also reflected on the outcomes of the latest AU Summit and on preparations for the AU PSC-EU PSC meeting, scheduled for May 2023.

The UNOAU Deputy Head of Office and Director of Political Affairs briefed the EU Experts on the latest AU Summit, noting that it addressed a range of issues, although it was largely framed by the media as a trade summit, given this year’s AU theme: ‘Year of AfCFTA: Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area Implementation’. He further summarized the AU Summit’s discussions on sanctions, unconstitutional changes of government, Africa’s role on the global stage, AU reforms, the division of labour between AU and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Israel’s observer status and the issue of financing PSOs. He also informed Mr. Nicola Bellomo and his team on the schedule of bilateral engagements undertaken by the UN Secretary-General during his recent visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in the margins of the Summit. The EU and UNOAU Teams further discussed existing AU-EU-UN trilateral cooperation, notably around migration, and the possibility of expanding the existing cooperation in the area of Peace and Security as suggested by the Chairperson of the AU Commission (AUC), Moussa Faki Mahamat, during the UN-AU Annual Conference held in December 2022.