Mills arrives in Libya for third Africa-EU Summit

From Benjamin Mensah, A GNA Special Correspondent, Tripoli, Libya,

Tripoli (Libya), Nov. 29, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills on Sunday evening arrived in Tripoli, Libya's largest and capital city, to attend the third Africa-European Summit, which opens on Monday.

The two-day Summit on the theme: "Investment, Economic Growth and Job Creation", would address key issues of peace and security, climate change, regional integration, private sector development, infrastructure and energy, economic co-operation, and the Millennium Development Goals, agriculture and food security and migration.

The Summit to be chaired jointly by Malawi President Bingu Wa Matharika and Mr Herman Van Rompuy, Permanent President of the European Council, bringing about 80 leaders, heads of states and governments from among the African Union and the European Union.

It would provide the two blocs and continents the opportunity to reaffirm and strengthen their strategic relationship. The Heads of States and Government's would focus their discussions on key thematic issues of common interest to both continents. Described as "the most important political event within the EU-Africa relations framework", the Summit is taking place in an intense political agenda as it is being held two months after the UN Millennium Development Goals High Level Meeting in New York and the Cancun Conference on Climate Change, which takes place from November 29 to December 10. The meeting would focus on the adoption of the Second Action Plan (2011-2013) after the last meeting in Lisbon to help the two sides to open perspectives for better and more prosperous future for the 1.5 billion people the countries of African and European nations.

Sources close to the Summit say, there will be high level participation of observers from the European Investment Bank and the United Nations among other organizations as well as direct interactions with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from the private sector on the margins of the Summit. A number of sideline events in areas such as business and investment, higher education, governance, training for better food and infrastructural development have been planned. President Mills is expected, on the sidelines of the Summit, to hold bilateral talks with counterparts on Ghana's investment drive. The Summit was first held in Cairo, Egypt, in 2000, and the second, in Lisbon, Portugal in 2007.