The Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs Luís Amado will represent Portugal as an Observer Country at the 14th African Union Summit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, January 30 - February 1.

This summit, focused on “Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Development”, will assess the sustainability of long-term prosperity of public-private partnerships and evaluate new strategies in light of the objective of the African Union (AU) Commission to make information and communication technologies a priority for member countries, at the level of key sectors such as transport, energy and water.

The summit began with the Permanent Representatives Committee 19th session, followed by the Executive Council 16th session (28-29 January) and will end with the AU General Assembly meeting (31 January to 2 February), with EU Council President and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero as guest of honour, who will address its opening session along with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

Discussions will include, the election of a new AU chairmanship to take over from Libya,  with Malawi and Lesotho as candidates; the election of the 15 AU Peace and Security (PSC) members; the progressive integration of NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for African Development) into the AU structures; climate change, in the wake of the Copenhagen Summit which adopted an African common position, projecting the AU as the voice of the continent’s consensus, and the analysis of regional issues - in particular, the situation in Guinea-Bissau, whose recent constructive constitutional developments will be acknowledged; Madagascar and Guinea, countries that were not invited due to their domestic situation and the problems in Sudan and Somalia.

Luís Amado will hold a series of bilateral meetings, namely Mozambique, Gabon, Ghana, Zambia, Burundi, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa.

African Union Summit

PROGRAMME

January 29 – February 3, 2010

Saturday, January 30

07.10 pm: Arrival at Addis Ababa

Sunday, January 31

Monday, February 1

12 pm – 1 pm: Closing ceremony of the African Union Assembly 14th Ordinary Session