Next week, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) will travel to Brussels for his first summit in office, a two-day meeting between the European Union and the African Union representatives. The summit will take place on February 17 and 18. Fiala will also hold talks with representatives of selected African countries.
“The prime minister’s participation aims to actively involve the Czech Republic in the formulation and implementation of EU policy towards the African Union and individual African countries based on the Czech Republic’s established foreign policy priorities towards Africa in the political, security, development, and trade and economic fields,” the submission says.
This will be the sixth summit between EU member states and the African Union, the previous ones having been held in 2000, 2007, 2010, 2014, and 2017. The summit will adopt joint priorities on investment, health, education, peace, security, governance, migration, mobility, and multilateralism.
There will be plenary sessions and seven roundtables on financing for growth, health systems, and vaccines, sustainable development and agriculture, education, culture, migration and mobility, private sector support and economic integration, peace, security and governance, climate change, and energy transition, digital and transport connectivity and infrastructure. Fiala will speak in the session on the private sector and economic integration.
Prior to the summit, there will be an online business forum with companies from the EU and Africa. There will also be an online Africa-Europe Week between 14 and 18 February. On behalf of the Czech Republic, the non-profit sector will host a panel discussion on job opportunities for young people.