France — The inaugural South Africa-European Union Summit is being seen as an important occasion to use the country's strategic partnerships to ensure that the decisions taken at the recent G8 Summit are implemented.

Speaking at the Union Buildings on Tuesday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, said there were certain issues currently dominating the international community, namely the high food and oil prices and climate change.

The Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries met earlier this month in Japan, to address these issues and make commitments to mitigate their effects.

The countries, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, decided on the long-term measures required to stimulate agricultural production in Africa to address food prices and expressed support for a plan for long-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The leaders made a commitment to increase development assistance to Africa by $25 billion a year by 2010 and to raise annual aid levels by $50 billion by 2010, of which $25 billion was meant for Africa.

"The summit will be an important occasion to reassess what was discussed at the G8 and to see how our strategic partnerships as South Africa and the EU can be used to ensure that the G8 decisions can be implemented," said Mr Pahad.

President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, will lead a senior South African government delegation to the inaugural summit scheduled for next week in Bordeaux, France.

Led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the EU delegation will include Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council and EU High Representative for CFSP, as well as José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.

Mr Pahad said the EU was the world's largest trading bloc and generated about 30 percent of global Gross Domestic Product and 20 percent of global trade flows.

"It is the world's biggest aid donor to poor countries, contributing approximately half of global aid," he said.

This first Summit of the South Africa - European Union Troika will be held in the context of the ongoing political dialogue (the Mogôbagôba Dialogue) under the auspices of the SA-EU Strategic Partnership and the SA-EU Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA).

The deputy minister explained that it will be the first regular summit since the establishment of the SA-EU Strategic Partnership in May 2007 and is a continuation of discussions that have already taken place during six SA-EU Ministerial Troika meetings since November 2004.

A key objective is to further deepen SA-EU relations and to address shared bilateral, regional and global interests through open discussions and exchanges of information.

Issues on the agenda are expected to include progress on the implementation of the SA-EU strategic partnership; Economic Partnership Agreements; the Africa-EU Joint Action Plan.

Other topics will include the environment and climate change; migration; food security; the World Trade Organisation Doha Development Round and African and global security issues.

The 7th SA-EU Ministerial Troika meeting will precede the summit in France on 25 July, where Ms Dlamini Zuma will be leading the South African delegation.

Mr Mbeki visited the EU in November 2004, where there was a reappraisal in the European Commission of relations with SA.

"The Commission felt that SA-EU relations needed to be elevated to a substantive strategic partnership along the lines of those the EU has with countries like India and China, etc.

"This was beyond the framework provided for in the SA-EU Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement (TDCA).

"Informal discussions between the SA Mission in Brussels and the European Commission (EC) where held about the developing nature of the SA-EU relationship, which eventually led to the matter being raised at the November 2005 SA-EU Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting," he said.

In November 2006 the JCC adopted a Joint Statement on the SA-EU Strategic Partnership, which called for a Joint Action Plan to be finalised and agreed to at the next SA-EU Ministerial Troika meeting to be held on 14 May 2007, and that a progress report on its implementation be drafted for adoption at the November 2007 JCC.

The parties agreed that the Strategic Partnership should add value to the existing cooperation, including the SA-EU Joint Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for 2007-2013, as well as to the present review and full implementation of the TDCA.

"Following several rounds of intense negotiations, the SA-EU Ministerial Troika meeting of 14 May 2007 agreed to the Joint Action Plan for the establishment of the SA-EU Strategic Partnership.

"In terms of the structure of the Strategic Partnership and its overall relation to the SA-EU Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) agreement was reached on the following issues," said Mr Pahad.

It was decided that high-level political talks were to be held twice a year in Troika format to form the core of political dialogue between the EU and South Africa, among others.

Implementation of the TDCA's trade provisions has been under way since 2000 with the aim of establishing a Free Trade Area (FTA) between South Africa and the EU by 2012.

Total trade has increased over five-fold, from R 56.5 billion in 1994 to R 313 billion in 2007.

The EU ranked as South Africa's number one exporting region for 2007. South Africa's total imports from the EU-15 amounted to R 176 billion in 2007, also ranking number one.

Europe remains the principal source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Africa, accounting for around 80 percent of total FDI in 2005.

Additionally, the EU accounted for approximately 66 percent of net foreign investment in South Africa in 2003 and 2004, and in 2005 the EU's share of the total assets held by foreigners in South Africa amounted to approximately 60 percent.

The EU is South Africa's largest development partner representing approximately 70 percent of all Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), with South Africa earmarked to receive  980 million for 2007-2013, Mr Pahad said.