The African Union Commission (AUC) and European Commission (EC) have set the foundations for a ‘strong cooperation’ in the field of energy.

This comes shortly after the signature of a Joint Statement on the Africa-EU Energy Partnership on Monday following high-level disccussions held at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"The African Union Commission (AUC) and the European Commission (EC) laid today the first stone of an ambitious bilateral energy cooperation with the signature of a Joint Statement on the Africa-EU Energy Partnership,” read the joint AU-EU press release, the main outcome of the meeting.

"The two parties [AU-EU] are looking for ways to embark on the implementation phase and the high level discussion that took place today was to identify areas of common interest for implementation,” clarified Esther Azaa, Information Officer at the Division of Communication and Information in an e-mail to The New Times Monday.

The statement stresses that during this high-level dialogue, the two parties agreed on actions to be taken in the next two years in order to speed up the implementation of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership.

The two parties also underlined the importance of reinforcing existing forms of energy cooperation, particularly in the current context of increasing global energy demand and high energy prices.

Also, according to the statement, the AU and EU have defined a strategy that addresses key energy challenges and covers energy security, access to sustainable energy services as well as issues of climate change.

The strategy also reinforces the political commitment to sustainable energy solutions and creates a strong framework for African-European dialogue.

Accordingly, the Joint Strategy and its First Action Plan (2008-2010) – adopted during the Lisbon Summit held in December 2007 – included eight strategic partnerships.

"The Energy Partnership is the first of the 8 that will count with a concrete set of measures to start its implementation,” says the joint statement.

It adds that cognizant of the fact that many African countries lack their own fossil energy resources, and consequently spend a large share of their export revenues on energy imports, among others, that’s why such a step was necessary.

"This is why AU and the EU have identified access to modern energy services in Africa as equally important for economic development and reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).”

Erastus Mwencha, the Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Dr. Elham Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim, the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, among others, presided over the discussions.

Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid and Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Energy reportedly led the European delegation.

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