30 November 2017

Migrants in Libya and youth, the two headlines of the AU-EU Summit

The EU and the African Union (AU) held a joint Summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to address key topics for the African continent and its relations with the EU, in presence of heads of state and government from 55 African countries as well as high level representatives of the 28 EU member states. To be noted, King of Morocco Mohamed VI participated in this summit, in which representatives of the Western Sahara territories were also present. The summit was also held in presence of President of the Libyan Government of National Accord Fayez al Sarraj, as one of the key issues to be discussed was irregular migration, especially in Libya. Participants stressed the imperative need to improve migrants’ living conditions in Libya as well as to tackle the root causes of irregular migration in the continent as seen as the only solution to solving the migrant crisis in Libya. The other key topic was youth. As President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, stated, “the majority of African citizens are under 25 years old, and by the middle of this century, one in four people on earth will be African. But this demographic dividend cannot deliver without smart investments. This is precisely why we are going to put our investments in education, in infrastructure, in peace and security, as well as in good governance.”

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