EU to boost strategic partnership with South Africa

The European Union announced here Monday that it is committed to pursuing its engagement with South Africa and to strengthening the strategic partnership with its largest trading partner in Africa. The statement came a day before the holding of the fifth EU-South Africa Summit in Brussels on Tuesday. South African President Jacob Zuma will discuss bilateral relations and regional and international issues with EU President Herman Van Rompuy and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barros, said an EU statement here today. It noted that the presidents will have an exchange of views on the situation in Syria, on the Sahel and in Somalia as well as on Zimbabwe. The two sides will address topics relating to the G20, global economic governance as well as sustainable development. The one-day summit will also welcome the recent launch of the EU's largest development cooperation programme to date with South Africa worth 250 million euro, to support the country's national development priorities. In addition, the conclusion of the negotiations on an EU-South Africa agreement for cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy will be welcomed, creating a legal framework for political, technical and industrial cooperation. The statement stressed that a strong relationship has evolved between the European Union and South Africa since the advent of democracy in South African in 1994. The two sides established a strategic partnership in 2007. The EU is South Africa's largest trading partner. Since 2004, total trade between South Africa and the EU has increased by 128%. EU-South Africa trade in goods represented 47.1 billion euro in 2011, up from around 42 bn euro in 2010 . Moreover in 2010, EU companies invested 7 bn euro in the country.