Council of the EU and European Council

July 17: Foreign Affairs Council

July 18: General Affairs Council

July 19: Coreper I & II

Nigerian Government Monday, deliberated with the European Union (EU) delegation on ways to facilitate trade and investment in Nigeria.The agreement was reached at the meeting between the Ambassador and Head of EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Michell Arion, and the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama. Also at the meeting, which held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were other ministry officials as well as 20 representatives of EU member states.The Minister noted that the meeting was subsequent upon the communiqué signed last year between Nigeria and EU, which focused on security, corruption, prosperity, migration and human development.

For a developing country exporter, for example, of fresh bananas from the Philippines seeking market access to the EU, it is necessary to comply with at least seven categories of sustainability standards, from food safety controls to labelling standards, with each category of compliance carrying with it a range of production guidelines and documentation – a somewhat daunting prospect for a semi-literate farming producer in rural Mindanao. As such, one of the major contemporary challenges facing developing country firms, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) today, is the ever-increasing number of regulations and sustainability standards they are required to conform to if they are to integrate into global value chains (GVCs).

Aid for trade (AfT) is explicitly addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under Goal 8: “Promotesustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.” For AfT to deliver on the ambitions of this goal in Africa, along with the objectives contained in the African Union’s (AU) long-term development vision and action plan, Agenda 2063, it is important to ensure that it is well-targeted and aligned with the continent’s strategic priority of structural transformation.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday it will finance the construction of a 32-MW solar power plant in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena. The financing for the facility was discussed during a visit last week by AfDB's vice president for power, energy, climate change and green growth Amadou Hott to the Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno. AfDB said it plans to back other projects in the country such as its electrical interconnection with Cameroon and the rehabilitation of the current National Electricity Company (SNE) plant.