Portugal’s prime minister has endorsed the proposal of the president of the European Council for a pact between Europe and Africa to regulate the flow of migration, punishing criminal groups that traffic people and promoting legal channels for migration. “The neighbourhood coexists, and this coexistence has to be duly regulated and not be an opportunity for organised crime and a threat to the lives of all those who want to find new life opportunities on the other side of the Mediterranean,” António Costa told Lusa on the sidelines of the 36th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), which ends ln Sunday in Addis Ababa, and which he attended as an observer. He was the only non-African ruler present.
In parallel, it is necessary to define legal migration channels, he said.
“We have to find a solution that is positive for everyone, because Europe undoubtedly needs more human resources” and “Africa has human resources in abundance”, considered the Portuguese head of government.
But, “on the other hand, Europe also has to find ways of helping it to create new jobs in Africa so that we do not simply have a loss of human resources capacity on the African continent,” he added.
The European Union’s new strategic growth lines are also an opportunity for such investment, as the covid-19 pandemic created logistical constraints and affected many European industries that had relocated to Asia.
“It makes sense to bring back to Europe a set of industrial productions that have been transferred to Asia and that can be located in Europe”, but “many can also be located in the African continent, helping to develop the continent”.
This helps “to create jobs that give hope to the youth of this continent and that they are not condemned to believe that only by risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean will they be able to find a decent job,” stressed António Costa, who also held several bilateral meetings in Addis Ababa.
“Despite all the disruption that the war [in Ukraine] has introduced this year in relations between Africa and Europe, the strategic projects that we approved a year ago at the EU/AU Summit have been moving forward,” Costa stressed.
There is a “need for us now to give a new boost to the implementation of these projects, not only because Europe, more than ever, needs to diversify its energy sources, but also because we need to invest heavily to give to the youngest continent in the world,” concluded the Portuguese leader.
Lusa
