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Euro-African Dialogue on Cross-Border Co-operation

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Background | Objectives | Actions | Partners | Contact & Documents

 

  Background

Europe has adopted many legal frameworks to promote and manage cross-border co-operation. Today, there are 115 European regions implementing cross-border cooperation programmes. If European cross-border cooperation has managed to bring about the regional integration of the most tenuous parts of the sub-continent, why not use its example in the context of another regional bloc that is engaged in reducing its own social, economic, and territorial fractures? The West African approach should draw on the European experience, which is the most advanced in the world, even though it is not to be replicated as such. Various discussions with representatives of National Border authorities and European cross-border co-operation  experts contributed to strengthen Euro-African Dialogue and led to the idea to establish a technical and financial development co-operation between European and West African border regions. A first Africa-Europe Conference on Cross-Border Co-operation could be the first step in the construction of a political foundation and in the implementation of financial and legal tools for cross-border co-operation in West Africa.

 

  Objectives

Building on the European experience, Euro-African dialogue could contribute to:

  • Mobilise the international community around a broad cross-border co-operation programme supporting peace, development and regional integration in West Africa;
  • Define the role of cross-border co-operation in the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and ECOWAS;
  • Propose financing mechanisms for cross-border co-operation in West Africa;
  • Propose actions for the establishment of legal frameworks for cross-border co-operation in West Africa.
  • Propose mechanisms for co-operation between European regions and West Africa.

  Actions

  • 1st Africa-Europe Conference on Cross-Border Co-operation
    The SWAC proposes to organise, in collaboration with ECOWAS, the African Union (AU) and the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), a 1st Africa-Europe Conference on Cross-Border Co-operation that will bring together about 200 participants, including representatives from West African governments, regional organisations, local authorities, and representatives from European border regions, development agencies and the donor community. The date is not yet fixed. > learn more
  • Preparatory operational studies: within the framework of the 1st Africa-Europe Conference, the SWAC will elaborate, in collaboration with its partners, two background studies, three feasability studies on Afro-European projects and two feasability studies on regional mechanisms. The studies aim to facilitate short-term action in the field and at the macro-regional level.

  Partners

As regional/continental organisations, ECOWAS and the AU are in the centre of this Euro-African dialogue. The SWAC also works in close collaboration with the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR). Over the past few years, the AEBR has been closely following the creation of cross-border co-operation in West Africa. Several of its members have expressed their desire to see West Africa make use of the European experience.

 

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