Romain Schneider discusses EU-ACP Partnerships, Gender, Emergency Aid at Foreign Affairs Council

Luxembourg Minister of Cooperation and Humanitarian Action Romain Schneider participated on 22 May 2018 at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council (CAE) in Brussels.

The meeting, organised by the Bulgarian presidency and under the chairmanship of High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, began with a discussion on the finalisation of a negotiating mandate for a new "post-Cotonou" partnership agreement between the EU and the ACP Group of States (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific).

After years of discussions and negotiations, this mandate should be adopted by the Council on 28 May. Like most of the ministers present, Romain Schneider welcomed the current text as a good compromise. He also thanked the Bulgarian presidency for having succeeded in taking on board many requests from Luxembourg, notably that of giving greater importance to development cooperation and the strengthening of civil society components, such as digitalisation, gender and reproductive rights, unaccompanied migrant children, vocational training, microfinance and agriculture.

Ministers then reviewed the status of the Emergency Trust Fund for Stability and Response to the Root Causes of Irregular Migration and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. The European Commission has reiterated the merits of this instrument and has indicated the need to replenish it with funds. Minister Schneider praised ongoing efforts to improve the living conditions of the populations of countries of departure and transit of migrants, thus meeting the real needs of these countries. He also proposed to diversify the sources of funding for this trust fund and emphasised the importance of the fund's valuation exercise in order to increase its efficiency.

The next topic on the agenda was the European Commission's 2 May Communication, which, in the context of the EU's next Multiannual Financing Framework 2020/2027, proposed to merge all external action instruments into one instrument, with a slightly larger function than current instruments. Minister Romain Schneider commended the simplification, flexibility and efficiency of efforts included in the proposal. As many questions remain open pending the detailed legislative proposals to be provided in June, he requested clarifications on the distribution of funds.

Finally, at lunch, ministers discussed gender as a cross-cutting theme of development activities. Romain Schneider took the opportunity to confirm the importance of this theme in all programmes of the Luxembourg Cooperation, while citing some flagship initiatives specifically targeting the issue of gender. Thus, together with Belgium and the Gates Foundation, Luxembourg supports the "She Is Equal" campaign, initiated by the Global Citizen initiative. This is a new campaign to mobilise citizens around the world to commit to gender equality, health and the empowerment of women and girls. This 6-month campaign will be launched on 5 June 2018 in Brussels, around the same time as the European Development Days.