An African Union Commission- European Commission College-to-College (C2C) will be gathering on Tuesday 8th June at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa.

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, accompanied by 10 European Commissioners, will be meeting in Addis with the African Union Chairperson, Jean Ping, and with the African Union Commissioners in plenary sessions, "cluster" meetings and bilateral meetings.

This meeting is the first time the Barroso II Commission will meet collegially with the African Union Commission. It will be an excellent opportunity to initiate or revive high-level contacts and to review progress on the wide range of cooperation between both commissions within the Africa-European Union Strategic Partnership. The C2C will come at a very timely moment and provide further guidance to the preparation of the upcoming Africa-EU Summit on 29-30 November in Libya.

Background

The Africa-EU relations are framed within the context of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy agreed in Lisbon in December 2007. The two Commissions are the main engines of the Strategy and they meet annually to provide political guidance to Africa-EU relations.

The previous edition of the European Commission - AUC College-to-College meeting was held in Brussels on 1 October 2008: 23 members of the European Commission welcomed the 10 Commissioners of the African Union Commission (AUC) to discuss the institutional relations between COM and AUC and to agree on the priorities of the eight thematic partnerships of the first triennial Action Plan 2008-2010 of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES).