Antonio TAJANI, EP President, concludes the EU - Africa Parliamentary Summit in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, .

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

meeting

EU - Africa (T)

speech

press conference

Côte d'Ivoire

EU - Africa Parliamentary Summit in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire: arrival, extracts from the concluding remarks by Antonio Tajani, EP President

External shots of the football stadium in Abidjan in front of the National Assembly of C&ocirc;te d'Ivoire

External shots of the National Assembly of C&ocirc;te d'Ivoire (2 shots)

Arrival of Antonio TAJANI, EP President Welcome by Guillaume SORO, President of the National Assembly of C&ocirc;te d'Ivoire and by Roger NKODO DANG, President of the Panafrican Parliament (4 shots)

Meeting with Guillaume SORO, President of the National Assembly of C&ocirc;te d'Ivoire and by Roger NKODO DANG, President of the Panafrican Parliament

Antonio TAJANI, EP President In the National Assembly with Roger NKODO DANG, President of the Panafrican Parliament  and Michael GAHLER (EPP,DE), Chair of the EP Delegation

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, I would like to begin by thanking the Ivoirian authorities for their welcome and for making it possible for us to meet here. I would also like to thank you, colleagues from the African and European Parliaments, for your participation and your contributions to African Week and the high-level conference organised last week in the European Parliament. It was important for an event of this kind to take place before the summit so that we could discuss in greater depth the issues facing us and the joint messages to be passed on. I hope we will be able to repeat this in the future. You have greatly contributed to the success of these meetings and we have all put pressure on the other institutions and on the Member States to ensure that tomorrow&rsquo;s summit will give fresh impetus to our relations. As democratically-elected representatives of the peoples of our two continents, we must have a more prominent role.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Good governance is only possible on the basis of democracy, and this is embodied by our Parliaments. This is the first message that President Nkodo Dang and myself will pass on at tomorrow&rsquo;s summit. We all agree on the need to put our relations on a more dynamic footing, as our two continents are more interdependent than ever. We are facing many challenges which threaten our common objective of prosperity and stability.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Our first aim must be to create jobs in an effort to tackle the population question. This will require huge investment delivered by means of innovative financial instruments which will have a direct impact on ordinary people

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, This is why I talk about a Marshall Plan for Africa, as we are facing an enormous task and have, moreover, little time to act. We must increase the amount available in the Sustainable Development Fund from the current EUR 4 billion to 40 billion, which will generate a leverage effect of nearly EUR 500 billion. If we are to succeed, we must involve civil society and economic actors, as they are the ones who will, in the end, create jobs. Similarly, we cannot talk about young people without giving them a bigger role in decision-making.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, This is why, at last week&rsquo;s high-level conference, every round-table discussion featured representatives of young people, of civil society, of the diaspora and of the private sector. We must also focus on local entrepreneurs and SMEs and place the role of women, who are the cornerstone of the informal economy in Africa, at the centre of everything we do. Development is not possible without acknowledging the work done by women and including them in decision-making and, by extension, in politics. I welcome the presence of significant numbers of women in the parliaments of our two continents.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, African leadership class. The African continent provides a great number of economic opportunities in various sectors, such as agriculture, tourism, the digital industries, renewables, fishing, industry and raw materials. In that connection I will, once the proceedings here have come to an end, visit the CEMOI factory, which transforms cocoa &ndash; a raw material vital to the GDP of C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, the world&rsquo;s leading producer &ndash; into chocolate. It thereby generates added value, jobs and income for the Ivoirian people and the state. This is the way forward: through industrialisation and economic diversification. Yet we should not forget the need for a holistic approach.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Companies, commerce and investment can only prosper and create jobs and sustainable, inclusive growth in a climate of peace, security, stability, good governance and respect for human rights. With regard to respect for human rights, I must condemn the re-emergence of a form of slavery which we have recently seen in Libya. This is unacceptable

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, This is why we need an honest, open discussion on the subject of migration. Legal migration must be encouraged, to be sure, but we must take a firm approach to cooperation on readmission and return in order to protect the dignity of the individual.

SOUNDBITE (French), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Tomorrow must mark the beginning of a new relationship between equals. It is our task, as parliamentarians, to carry out our role of exercising scrutiny over the executive, thereby ensuring that the decisions taken are acted upon. I would like to thank you once again for your work, which has resulted in the declaration that has just been adopted and which President Nkodo Dang and I will pass on tomorrow. It will, I am certain, contribute greatly to the success of the summit