Moroccan King Sends Speech To 6th European Union-African Union Summit
Brussels, February 19 (TNA) Moroccan king Mohammed VI on Friday sent a speech to the 6th European Union-African Union Summit, which is held in Brussels. In his letter, the royal said: It is only natural that, in keeping with history and the requirements of a shared destiny, Morocco should simultaneously address Africa, a continent to which it belongs, and Europe, its neighbor and closest partner.
He added “education, culture, vocational training, mobility and migration are the priorities of my action, whether it is in Morocco, in Africa or in the framework of our partnership with the European Union.
The principal reason for this is because these themes essentially concern youth, which is our human capital. It is on them that the Partnership between the two continents should capitalize in order to achieve its full potential”.
Another reason is that these major sectors have been hard hit by the pandemic, which requires us to take joint action, on a large scale. First, in the area of education, let us keep in mind that, at the height of the pandemic, 94% of the student population in the world suffered school closures. We therefore need to ensure the continuity of education, taking into account the new context of digital transformation in this domain, he added.
Although global, this requirement is particularly crucial in Africa, a continent where 50% of the population is under 20, he said. Moreover, our schools, universities, and vocational training institutions need, just like our respective economies, a robust recovery to make up for the 1.8 trillion hours of lost schooling, he pointed out.
Furthermore, the pandemic has not spared culture either, be it in economic terms, or from the standpoint of access. In this regard, the shock has been considerable.
It is therefore necessary today to re-establish cultural cooperation mechanisms in order to reinvigorate the sector, which is a real lever for bringing people together in Africa, in Europe and also between the two continents.
Finally, the pandemic has shown that in terms of mobility, migrants do not have a harmful effect on the economy. On the contrary, they have a positive impact in their host country - where they are often "essential workers" - as well as in their country of origin. We should therefore take the question of migration for what it is: it is not so much a challenge as a host of opportunities.
“I firmly believe this to be true, especially since as the African Union's Leader on the issue of migration, I have always sought to dispel misunderstandings. And this is, by the way, the purpose of the African Migration Observatory, whose creation I personally encouraged.
The Observatory’s mission is to provide objective data; to re-establish the truth; to reconcile the interests of Africa and those of Europe when they appear to be contradictory; and to replace the security-first approach with the mobility-development continuum, in keeping with the humanist spirit of the Marrakech Compact” he added.