Angola is located in South-West Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, having the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia as eastern neighbours and Namibia as southern's. The country population is approximately 17.4 million dispersed across a total area of 1,246,700 km², with a growth rate of around 3% which is fuelled by the highest fertility rate in the world (7 children per woman on average). A long and brutal civil war has devastated the country since immediately after independence from Portugal in 1975, until peace was finally reached in 2002.

Today Angola is experiencing a period of political stabilisation after internationally monitored legislative elections in September 2008, while economic recovery is impressive, double-digit growth since 2004 having been (until the world financial-economic crash) the highest rate in Africa. Oil income is the driving force ( Angola is the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa). Recent macroeconomic reforms are contributing to increase transparency and accountability in public finance management. Public spending has dramatically increased, focussing on the rehabilitation of infrastructure, while attempts to promote economic diversification are in course, particularly in mining, agriculture and fisheries sectors which used to be the mainstay of the economy in the pre-independence time.

In spite of a higher per capita income when compared with many Sub-Saharan countries, life expectancy at birth and education indexes in Angola are still lower than average. The country’s wealth is still highly concentrated and the few data available indicate severe poverty, particularly in the peri-urban and rural areas where food insecurity reaches alarming levels. Inadequate sanitation and healthcare lead to high maternal and child mortality and endemic diseases like malaria and TB. Epidemic outbreaks of polio, measles, meningitis and cholera, as well as sleeping sickness and HIV/AIDS are also on the rise. However, Angola is engaged in overcoming these limitations, the current economic boom having allowed government to allocate an average of 35% of budget resources to the social sectors.

Angola is endowed with one of the richest biodiversities in Africa but needs to rise to important environmental challenges including overuse of pastures, soil erosion, , deforestation for timber and coal, inadequate use of fresh water, poaching and marine oil spills.

Key issues in EU-Angola relations

Development cooperation

Considering Angola's important own resources but taking account that weak institutional capacity and lack of qualified human resources are the main constraints on the country's development, the main goal of the EU-Angola cooperation is to contribute to sustainable development through institutional support and capacity building. Building upon government’s strategy to combat poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the new 2008-2013 EU-Angola Country Strategy Paper (CSP) reaches a total financing of € 214 M.

In this framework the main areas of the EU-Angola cooperation are:

1. In the area of governance, democracy, human rights and support to economic and institutional reforms, the objective is to promote economic and institutional reform, enhance governance and the provision of public services and improve the human rights situation. Main fields of cooperation are the modernisation of the public administration, the enhancement of public finances management and the reform of the justice sector.

2 . As for human and social development , the objective is to accelerate Angola's progress towards MDG poverty-related, health and education targets by supporting both government and non-governmental organisations to improve the access and quality of the basic social services. Cooperation in these areas is developed through Sectoral Programmes in support to the education and health sectors, the protection of vulnerable groups, water and sanitation, as well as the rehabilitation, construction, and equipping of social infrastructure, at the municipal level in particular.

3. Given the high levels of food insecurity and the dependence on the agricultural production, a third priority is given to rural development, agriculture and food security. Related with the development of agriculture, De-mining activities are also foreseen. Main fields of cooperation are the adaptation and diversification of smallholders’ agriculture, the economic and social reintegration of vulnerable groups, de-mining and associated security activities and basic infrastructure at the rural and municipal level.

4. Support is finally foreseen in the water sector, for the development of trade, in support to Non-state actors and to the management of the biodiversity.

Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

Progress is still limited with regard to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Angola has not signed yet the Interim EPA in the SADC configuration.

Angola-EU Joint WayForward

In view of the important role that Angola plays in Africa, the country's willingness to have a more prominent international stance, increasing participation in regional and other multilateral organisations, continued process of democratisation, and economic potential, the EU and Angola intend to take their relations up to a new level of political cooperation through an Angola-EU Joint Way Forward (JWF) process. Through an intensive dialogue guided by fundamental principles of ownership and joint responsibility, as well as of interdependence between Africa and Europe in a globalised world, this process --permanent and inclusive involving public and private partners at different levels of responsibility-- will enable both parties to address a number of global issues of common interest, and thus transcend the current focus on aid and development.