Sócrates talks the talk but African-EU relations rocky

EU AND African leaders pledged yesterday to create a new partnership of equals at a summit marked by rows over trade and Darfur and a vitriolic attack by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe on European “arrogance”.

After two days of debate, leaders of the two continents put their names to an Africa-EU Strategic Partnership agreement to take their relationship to “a new, strategic level”.

They vowed “to move away from a traditional relationship and forge a real partnership characterised by equality and the pursuit of common objectives” and which “capitalises on the lessons of the past”.