John Kufuor, the president of Ghana and current president of the African Union, AU, thanked Portugal today to have brought about the II EU-Africa Summit, after the “failure” of the meeting scheduled in Cairo for 2003.

“After Cairo in 2000, unfortunately it was not possible to hold the 2003 summit. It is thanks to Portugal that we are here today” declared Kufuor during the opening ceremony of this intercontinental meeting, taking place at Pavilhão Atlântico, in Lisbon, since 10h30.

Kufuor also thanked Portugal for “the way in which the Portuguese presidency of the European Union welcomed the participants” in the summit and mentioned that Lisbon is “a beautiful city”.

Without going into details, the president of the AU looked back over the relations between Europe and Africa, which started “with the gold trade, degenerating then into the slave trade and later into colonialism and apartheid”.

“Only during the 1950s, with the liberation movements did relations between the two continents become normal”, stated the Ghana’s president, regretting that during five hundred years of relationship, this has not been “the happiest”.

In view of this situation, Kufuor, who spoke during the opening session after José Sócrates, defended the need to develop a new cooperation between Europe and Africa, at all levels, because “for both of us to be present in this global village, Africa needs Europe and Europe needs Africa”.