On 29 April the EESC organised a webinar to look into the state of play of EU-Africa relations, considered as one of the Commission’s main priorities for the years ahead and now threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants agreed that consolidation of supply chains and an agreement to ease the external debt burden of African countries were key issues.

Luca Jahier, President of the EESC; Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa; Ambassador Ranieri Sabatucci, Head of the EU Delegation and European Union Special Representative to the African Union; Stefano Manservisi, former Director-General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO) at the European Commission; Dilyana Slavova, President of the Section for External Relations of the EESC and Stephen Karingi, Director of Regional Integration, Infrastructure and Trade Division at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, took part in this debate, which is one of a series of webinars organised by the EESC to express its views on the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. (dgf)