The European Commission is to propose making South Africa a ”strategic partner” by forging a pact similar to ones already struck with the United States and China, EU sources said on Tuesday.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has set out its ideas for a partnership — its sixth such pact — in a document to be considered by the EU’s 25 member state governments and EU lawmakers.
The document notes that South Africa ”has emerged as a leading national and a peace broker in the region and on the African continent. It has authority not just in Africa but in global multilateral institutions”.
”South Africa is therefore a natural partner to Europe on the African continent and on a global level,” it adds.
But it says: ”Relations between South Africa and the EU require more coherence, clear objectives, and a shared forward-looking political vision with a view to strengthening joint political action.”
The study lists key areas where ties between the 25-nation EU — one of the world’s biggest trading blocs with a single market of over 450-million people — should bolster its links with Pretoria.
They include everything from forging closer ties in global trade talks and boosting development cooperation to fighting HIV/Aids, countering racism and combatting terrorism.
A partnership pact with South Africa should ”clearly spell out what both sides can expect from one another on the domestic, regional, continental and global fronts”, says the EU document.
It should also ”do justice to South Africa’s and the EU’s unique positions in the new, globalised world”, it adds.
The EU already has strategic partnerships with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and India. – Sapa-AFP