After Cairo in 2000, Lisbon (2007) and Tripoli in 2010, African leaders and their European counterparts yesterday, 2rd April 2014 started meeting in Brussels, for the 4th EU-Africa Summit. President Paul Biya, and his wife, Chantal Biya left the country, Tuesday for this important North– South meeting.

The theme of the summit, “Investing in people, prosperity and peace” is indeed topical considering the challenges African nations today face and what is expected of European nations if they are genuinely committed to the peace and development of the countries they once colonized. What, however, makes the 4th EU-Africa Summit timely is not only the fact it is holding at a time when African nations are plagued by what has been aptly described as persistent poverty and recurrent geopolitical crises, but also the threatening effects of climate change. Can the 4th EU-Africa confab serve as a launch pad for what the other summits have failed to do despite the efforts made since 2000? Why not? The magic wand (if one must consider it as such) is genuine commitment and a realistic approach to the strategies Europe adopts to bridge the developmental gaps that keep widening instead of narrowing between nations of the two continents.

Political instabilities triggered by geopolitical, tribal, and even religious differences persist at a time when the ingredients of meaningful globalization could stall the conflicts and instill a scenario of peace and cooperation. What a challenge for African nations and their European cooperation partners!

The crises in the Central African Republic, Mali, Egypt, South Sudan, Somalia, and even Nigerian with Boko Haram and Kenya are indeed disturbing, but something can at least be done to alter the trends. The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso could with the other six European Commissioners mastermind redress strategies, but a lot more can only achieved if African nations continue to work hard at national and regional levels to weather the apparently endless storms on their continent. They need to face the challenge of “peace making” and it sustenance through patriotism, genuine democratic practice and cooperation.

Among the topics to be focused on during this summit, are education and training, Women and Youth, legal and illegal migrant flows between Europe and Africa. Through effective cooperation, the imbalances responsible for migrations can be redressed. The greener grass that takes youths out of the continent can be made available and more rewarding at home.

The truth, and indeed a challenge is that if our institutions of the South and those of the North were genuinely committed to what is needed to combat the disturbing north-south socio-economic imbalances, inter-continental encounters like the EU-Africa Summits would hardly be considered window dressing.

The future of Africa-EU partnership largely depends on what European and African leaders know their people need, and how they can together derive the best from the summits they organize in the interest of their people. Joint efforts for collective interest deserve the pains and costs borne by the nations concerned.

As African leaders and their European counterparts meet in Brussels after similar encounters in Cairo, Lisbon and Tripoli, let the well chosen theme for this summit be given the urgent reflection deserved in the interest of the two continents and our global village at large.