Before the EU Foreign Ministers meet next week, the two conferences stress the need to shift back to ?partnership grounded in mutual respect, environmental stewardship, and the centrality of human dignity.?

Ahead of the European Union Foreign Ministers? Meeting on May 21, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the Commission of the Bishops? Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) issued a joint statement raising concerns about ?a profound shift in European priorities.?

From five years ago to today?

Half a decade ago, SECAM and COMECE stressed that they were ?firmly convinced? that Europe and Africa had the potential to reinvigorate ?multilateral cooperation by reinforcing their longstanding ties marked by our common roots and geographical proximity.?

However, in their statement issued on May 15, the two Bishops? Conferences highlight their worry that the attention has shifted ?away from solidarity with the most fragile regions and communities? and towards ?a more narrowly defined set of geopolitical and economic interests.?

At what expense?

Priorities seem to have changed to the ?patterns of the past? ? a return to placing ?European corporate and strategic aims over the real needs and aspirations of African people.? This means the basic foundations of life ? land, water, seeds, and minerals ? have once again become commodities ?for foreign profit.?

The African continent is therefore being made to put its ecosystems and communities at risk to support Europe's decarbonisation objectives through land agreements marketed as being part of ?green? energy projects or shifting the burden of industrial agriculture?s toxic inputs and waste to other regions. The statement from SECAM and COMECE emphasizes that this current situation ?is not partnership. This is not justice.?

Pope Francis? legacy lives on

Recalling Pope Francis? encyclical, Laudato Si?, the Bishops' Conferences call to mind the ?cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,? which are ?loud and clear across Africa.? It points out the injustice African countries are facing as a result of the imbalance in the relationship between them and Europe.

COMECE and SECAM highlight the effects of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and soil degradation and how hunger is growing on the African continent, not ?because we lack food, but because we have allowed systems to dominate that put profit above people.?

A call for change

The two conferences urge the EU Foreign Ministers, who will meet on May 21 in Brussels, to put the ?dignity of African peoples at the heart of the African Union (AU)-European Union (EU) partnership.? They highlight the need to protect and promote farmer-managed seed systems, which are ?the key to food sovereignty.?

To conclude, the COMECE and SECAM statement becomes a call to action with specific examples of how to go from abstract to concrete. They advocate ?for an immediate ban on the export and use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides in Africa.? They point out the injustice that chemicals which are banned in Europe are still made and sold to African farmers. ?This double standard must end.?

The statement offers many suggestions on how to better care for and respect the African continent and its ecosystem. But they emphasize that ?Africa does not need charity? rather, it requires justice and ?a partnership grounded in mutual respect, environmental stewardship, and the centrality of human dignity.?

To do this, COMECE and SECAM call for the AU and EU ministers to ?rise to this moment? and listen more attentively to the African civil society, Indigenous peoples, and faith communities ?not as token participants, but as equal co-creators of policy.? (Vatican News, excluding headline)

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