AFRICA-EUROPE FAITH AND JUSTICE NETWORK
RESEAU FOI ET JUSTICE AFRIQUE-EUROPE

174, rue Joseph II
B-1000 Bruxelles - Belgique
Tel. 32-2 234 6810 Fax 32-2 231 1413
aefjn@aefjn.org http://www.aefjn.org

AEFJN is a network of 41 catholic religious and missionary Institutes with members in Africa and Europe, promotes equitable economic relations between Africa and Europe, providing information and analysis on economical policies that affect Africa adversely and seeks to influence positively the policies of national governments and the European Union Institutions.

Results of lobbying activity
2001 - 2005
May 2005

The mandate of AEFJN is to influence positively EU economic policies that impact Africa adversely. Few areas of our work are only internal EU matters (e.g. ODA). Globalisation of trade and commerce makes that the EU Commission represents its 25 member states at the World Trade Organisation. AEFJN therefore lobbies the EU positions at the WTO negotiations in Geneva (e.g. positions on the AoA, GATS, TRIPS). On issues that concern the United Nations (e.g. ATT or MDG) and the G8 (e.g. Debt), member states negotiate and not the EU Commission and Council. AEFJN lobbies then the national governments and asks the EU Commission to influence as much as possible national governments.

Because of the EU is only a union of independent states, lobbying does follow the EU policy making procedures. Results of efforts to include equitable principles in draft policy proposals are only visible after months, and mostly after one or two years of work. Identifying and monitoring areas of concern and their importance for national and union levels, elaborating an AEFJN position, networking with groups of civil society to obtain as large a common platform as possible in order to engage the EU institutions and finally the lobbying campaigns that focus on the EU Parliament, Commission and through the national governments and parliaments, the EU Council, are time consuming but necessary steps in our lobbying work.

Only the increasing synergy of civil society groups in European and national coalitions and platforms do bring about enough political will to include some of our proposals for changes in draft EU policies. Over the last years, the AEFJN as an international network and our antennae at national level, are increasingly involved as partners of such coalitions.

However, even though civil society is a recognized actor in the European policy making process, it is by far the weakest one, with the strongest players being the lobbies of the industry and trade sectors. Moreover, decision power in the EU lies with the Council of the Union, which appoints its EU Commission as its executive. The EU Parliament, though directly elected by the citizens of the EU, has mostly only consultative powers. This means that the EU Parliament can be civil society's ally in pressurizing the Council or the Commission. However, even if civil society gets the backing of the Parliament for a certain policy proposal, it is by no means sure that the Commission or the Council will follow the advice given!

Not withstanding these limitations, we can confidently say that over the last 4 years, through the work of AEFJN and its members, missionaries and religious have actively participated in influencing positively the following 19 policy areas that affected directly people in Africa and Europe:

1. On access to Essential Medicines in Africa

1.1 The Doha Declaration on Public Health (13/11/2001)
At the WTO Ministerial Conference of Doha (Qatar), the ministers instructed the TRIPS Council to amend the agreement to allow countries that have no medicine production capacity to import generic medicines even if the brand medicine, protected by a patent, is available in their countries.

1.2 WTO waiver for LDCs on postponing the obligation for legislation on patent protection till 2016 (27/06/2002)
The least developed countries (LDC) got a 10 years extension to put in place an international recognized national patent protection law for pharmaceutical products. This decision allows LDCs to formulate legislation that is more respecting national resources and capacity, and allows for easier access to generic medicines.

1.3 WTO waiver for LDCs on imports of generic medicines (30/08/2003)
This regulation of the WTO TRIPS Council was the first (though unsatisfactory) attempt to implement the Doha Declaration on Public Health of November 2001.

1.4 Reinforcement of the WHO Pre-Qualification Project (22/05/04)
The 57th World Health Assembly, asked the World Health Organization to strengthen the capacity and speed of its Pre-qualification project that was in danger of being cancelled. The WHO Pre-qualification project is a pilot project, set up in 2001, to improve access to quality and affordable medicines through assessing the quality of generic and brand medicines as well as their manufacturing sites.

1.5 European Parliament Position in view of the September summit on the Millennium Development Goals (12/04/2005)
The Position calls on the Commission and the Council of the EU to provide for the means to produce enough ACT therapies to fight successfully malaria in Africa.

2. On access to resources of traditional seeds and knowledge in Africa

2.1 The EU Commission's ruling on labelling of the geographical origin of organic materials in applications for patents (17/09/2002)
This ruling stems the piracy of biological and cultural resources in Least Developed Countries and to give them the chance to challenge patents on biodiversity sources and traditional knowledge.

2.2 The Peruvian patent office and gene bank returns the intellectual property rights on potatoes to 6 indigenous communities (22/01/2005)
Though not directly of AEFJN concern, this ruling sets a precedent for returning the property rights on patented bio-resources and traditional knowledge hailing from Africa, that have been patented to foreign companies.

3. On access to safe drinking water and sanitation services in Africa

3.1 Resolution of the European Parliament (04/09/2003)
The resolution asked the Commission not only to encourage and support European private companies commitments in water and sanitation services in Africa, but to consider also community owned and managed systems.

3.2 EU Water facility - financing facility for water systems (22/10/2004)
The Commission opens its programme for sponsoring water systems to community owned and managed water and sanitation systems. Most applications in the first 6 months are from Africa.

4. On the impact of EU agricultural policies on Africa

4.1 Halting the WTO Cancun agenda for further liberalisation (14/09/2003)
The agenda of the Cancun WTO Ministerial Conference aimed at launching new negotiations on 4 new issues of trade. AEFJN supported the "Group of 21" (agricultural export developing countries) and the Group of African countries (especially the cotton producers). They brought fair agricultural agreements in focus as the priority need for developing countries and asked to stop dumping through agricultural subsidies.

4.2 Resolution of the European Parliament on the EU Sugar Regime (10/03/2005)
For over a year the network was instrumental in bringing together the 7 countries' strong "European Food Sovereignty Platform", with strong links to African and South American civil society groups, producing a common resolution on 16/11/2004. The Parliamentary resolution of March 2005 is largely based on the Platform's position and asks the EU Commission to consider elements such as maintaining socially, economically and ecologically sustainable family farming, remunerative prices for produce, adequate supply management, solidarity with farmers in the South, etc.

4.3 The European Parliament Position in view of the September Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (12/04/2005)
The parliament calls upon the Commission and member states to recognize fully the right and duty of every country to protect itself as and where required from countries' exports that could threaten their local agricultural production. Without saying explicitly, the Parliament endorses elements of the European Platform for Food Sovereignty position, in that they recognize the right of a country or region to democratically define its own policies, priorities and strategies to enhance a sustainable food production.

5. On Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between African regions and the EU

5.1 Commission forced to open up the debate on Economic Partnership Agreements (20/01/2004)
The Stop EPA Campaign, of which AEFJN is a founding member, drew wide public attention, both in Africa and in the EU, to the possible negative impact for Africa of the Commission's proposals for regional economic partnerships in Africa, as Free Trade Zones. Both Commissioner Mandelson and the Directorate General of Trade were forced to justify their positions, opening up a wide debate on possible alternative models and policies for regionalisation.

5.2 European Parliament Position in view of the September summit on the Millennium Development Goals (12/04/2005)
The Parliamentary Position calls on the EU Commission to exercise caution in the EPAs negotiations, using several arguments highlighted in the position of the Stop EPAs Coalition.

6. On the issue of over-indebtedness of African countries
After the Jubilee 2000 campaign, the debt campaigns fell into an anti-climax.

6.1 Recognition of insufficiency of the HIPC initiative by the G7 finance ministers (03/11/2004)
From July 2003 onwards AEFJN joined other debt campaigns to press for further debt cancellations, especially the finance ministers. They recognized officially that the HIPC initiative is insufficient to provide a lasting exit to the crisis of over-indebtedness of African countries.

6.2 IMF considers the possible sale of gold reserves (15/03/2005)
Contrary to a longstanding position, the IMF considers now the sale of part of its undervalued gold reserves as means to finance urgently needed debt cancellations, a demand of debt campaigns since years.

7. On trade in small arms with Africa

7.1 UN Action Plan on Illicit Trade in Small Arms (20/07/2001)
The Assembly of the UN in its first Conference on all the aspects of illicit trade in small arms, agreed to an action plan to control internationally the trade in small arms. Existing codes of conduct on trade in small arms (e.g. the EU code) were asked to evolve into legally binding instruments.

7.2 Ratification of the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the rights of the Child (12/02/2002)
The ratification of this protocol engages UN member states not to employ youngsters less then 18 into their armed forces.

7.3 Resolution of the EU Parliament on small arms trade (13/05/2005)
The parliament calls on the EU Council and Commission to endorse the proposal of an internationally binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Luc Coppejans, MAfr
AEFJN, Bruxelles, May 2005.