Summit fails to mask sensitivities over EU-Africa ties

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

LISBON (AFP) — Leaders of Europe and Africa headed home Monday after a summit which failed to mask deep divisions despite pledges of an equal relationship, with a row on Zimbabwe highlighting the gulf between continents.

Fifty years after Ghana, the first African nation to free itself of European rule, won its independence, the two-day summit hosted by one of the continent's former colonial powers, Portugal, was billed as an opportunity for all sides to speak their mind on a level footing.

"We met at this summit talking plainly and directly as equals," said Ghana's President John Kufuor at Sunday's conclusion of the two-day summit in Lisbon where a broad-brush joint declaration on a "common vision" was signed.

But if Kufuor and host Prime Minister Jose...