On 25 October, the Council of the European Union adopted its Horn of Africa Regional Action Plan 2015-2020. EU Foreign Affairs Council for Development said that “This Regional Action Plan reasserts the importance which the EU attaches to continuing close co-operation with partners across the region in using all available instruments to support and encourage peace, stability, sustainable growth and prosperity throughout the Horn of Africa.” The Council also expressed readiness to continue working closely with countries and regional organizations such as the Gulf Cooperation Council and the African Union in support of efforts to achieve peace, security and development in the Horn of Africa. It said “While the Gulf States have always had interests in the Horn of Africa due to their geographic proximity, the politics and security of the Horn of Africa are today increasingly and visibly intertwined with those of the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt.” It also mentioned the recent crisis in Yemen as affecting the security of northern Somalia and the geopolitical position of both Sudan and Eritrea.

The Horn of Africa Regional Action Plan outlines the EU’s approach to address key issues throughout the region.  It calls for the EU to give priority to regional security and stability, migration and forced displacement, counter-radicalization and violent extremism, youth and employment, and human rights, rule of law and democratic governance. It says eradication of poverty is a precondition to addressing these challenges effectively and that will remain the central objective of the EU’s development co-operation. The Council said addressing these challenges would require interventions in peripheral regions and across borders, and will demand a better synchronized approach to political, development, economic, migration, gender-based and security aspects. The Action Plan will be implemented through the EU Trust Fund to be presented at the Valletta Summit on Migration on November 11 to 12.

On 20 October 2015, Foreign Minister, Dr Tedros Adhanom met with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms. Federica Mogherini. Ms. Mogherini visited Ethiopia as part of the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of EU-Ethiopia relations. Ms. Mogherini noted that the EU and Ethiopia relations during this period had encompassed humanitarian, developmental, and political areas as well as peace and security.  She stressed the EU’s desire to further invest in its relationship with Ethiopia, noting in particular the importance of putting in place a mechanism for high–level political dialogue.

Discussing the current humanitarian situation in drought-affected areas in Ethiopia, Ms. Mogherini noted the EU’s readiness to support the efforts of the Ethiopian Government. In relation to business and economy, Ms. Mogherini noted that “EU is a top trade partner with Ethiopia and we wish to see it grow even more”. She suggested hosting an Ethiopia-EU business forum. She also emphasized the EU’s interest to work with Ethiopia on climate change for the upcoming Paris Climate Change Conference of Parties. With regard to migration and mobility, Ms. Mogherini noted that EU firmly believed that the upcoming Valeta Conference would have an important role to define the structures and institutions of Africa and Europe and design effective intervention to tackle irregular migration. She also noted the EU’s desire to work with Ethiopia on supporting returnees, dismantling human trafficking networks and providing awareness-creation programs.

Dr Tedros thanked the EU for its support to Ethiopia’s peace and security efforts in Somalia, in South Sudan and the region in general.  He highlighted the  strong trade partnership Ethiopia enjoyed with the EU, agreeing that, given the potential much needs could be done. He welcomed the idea of hosting a business forum.  He thanked the EU for its 745 million Euro support and emphasized the need for EU to consider support for Ethiopia’s major projects.  He also discussed Ethiopia’s challenges in regulating migration as it is a country of origin, transit and destination. He welcomed the EU’s desire to support Ethiopia’s efforts to address the root cause of migration, the fight against poverty. He also noted that Ethiopia’s National Council against Human Trafficking was working on addressing attitudinal problems by creating awareness of the dangers of irregular migration. He pointed out that Ethiopia was pushing hard to create jobs through increasing productivity and small holder farmers, and boosting Small and Microfinance projects.

A media forum organized by the EU Delegation to Ethiopia on Tuesday (October 6) shared the progress in exchanges over the past 40 years between Ethiopia and the European Union. The Head of the EU Delegation to Ethiopia, Chantal Hebberecht, gave a presentation on various themes of development, highlighting the successes witnessed in Ethiopia. Ambassador Hebberecht said that the EU and Ethiopia together were playing a key role by cooperating in different development and social sectors. Their joint priorities included health, roads and energy, sustainable agriculture, food security, the environment and support to civil society organizations. The Ambassador said that the European Development Fund (EDF) had “allocated an initial 745 million Euros for the period to 2020 to support government-led programs in Ethiopia.” She stressed that the EU and Ethiopia were marking the 40th anniversary of a “strong and successful partnership.”

On the occasion of the new parliamentary session, the House has re-elected Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and elected House Speakers of the House of the Peoples’ Representative (HPR) and the House of Federation (HoF) on 5 October 2015. Ato Abadula Gemeda and Shitaye Menale are also re-elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representative.

At the morning’s opening session of the House of Federation, Ato Yalew Abate and Ato Mohammed Reshid were elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Federation respectively. H.E President Dr. Mulatu in his opening speech expressed his belief, and his hope that “this Fifth term of Parliament will remain committed to sustain the successful achievements of past sessions, and focus on the key issues of our efforts to improve our strengths and address our weaknesses.”

“It is a historic moment”, the President added, “as the key event unfolds upon a successful completion of the implementation of the Growth and Transformation Plan One, and the launch of the Growth and Transformation Plan Two, it is a decisive point in our efforts to reach the lower level of middle-income countries by 2025.” Many Diplomats, Ambassadors, Religious Leaders and prominent personalities attended the occasion.

On 28 September 2015, Foreign minister Dr. Tedros met with Ms. Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission in New York.

Their discussion covered regional political and security matters and ways to work together in managing irregular migration coming from the Horn of Africa region. Ms. Mogherini noted that the EU has recently allocated a Euro 1.8 billion trust fund for the Sahel, North Africa and the Horn to promote economic and equal opportunities, security and development and address the root causes of migration from Africa. “We are refining methods and working on packages to cooperate with Ethiopia and countries of the region to address the root causes of irregular migration”, she added.

Dr. Tedros emphasized the importance of cooperation, underlining that migration had become part of the serious global political agenda. Stopping the flow of irregular migration needed to address the root cause which, he said, “is mainly associated with poverty and addressing inequality through job creation.” He explained Ethiopia’s efforts to dismantle human trafficking networks stretching from the Horn of Africa to North Africa and Europe, and highlighted the need for strong cooperation to do away with these networks which were making billions of dollars by smuggling humans. Ethiopia, as part of its efforts to dismantle these criminal networks, had recently detained over 200 suspects. He also explained about the awareness creation action undertaken by Ethiopia’s National Council on Illegal Migration, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonen.

Dr. Tedros also noted the efforts made in job creation and the results achieved in easing urban unemployment. Ethiopia, as a country of origin of migrants, over the last year alone, he said, had managed to create 2.6 million jobs in Small and Medium Enterprises. Dr. Tedros detailed Ethiopia’s flagged unique situation as a country of origin, of transit and of destination for migrants and refugees. Ethiopia, he said, is one of the main refugee host countries, with some 700,000 refugees in the country at the moment. He hoped that EU cooperation and support to Ethiopia would take all this into consideration.

On 22 September 2015, State Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Berhane met a visiting delegation from the EU, led by the Deputy Head of Delegation, Mrs. Terhi Lehtinen, and Ambassador of Netherlands Lidi Remmelzwaal, Permanent Representative to the AU.

The discussion covered the need for a comprehensive response by the European countries to the current problems of migration and refugees, and the importance of enhancing cooperation with Ethiopia, with Horn of Africa countries and with the whole of the African continent. State Minister Ambassador Berhane emphasized that Migration and mobility of people would, of course, continue now that the world has become a village with the emergence of globalization; and addressing the issue was an opportunity as well as a challenge for strengthening bilateral ties with EU countries. He underlined possible joint solutions within the framework of globalization shared Ethiopia’s interest in the problem as the largest host of refugees in Africa. Ambassador Berhane pointed out that Ethiopia has not changed its policies as a result of the current refugee crises. Its existing open-door policy remained the same and it welcomed and could handle refugees from many countries. The number was now approaching a million and some problems were emerging, including devastation of forests and green fields in areas where the refugees were settled. He said Ethiopia shared the concerns of the EU in concrete terms. Indeed, if it had not been able to manage the issue properly, it might have been more affected than the EU countries, since the region remained unstable.

Mrs. Lehtinen noted that the migration or mobility issue was the priority area of discussion for the EU. She said partnerships are needed with African countries to help minimize the challenges comprehensively. The delegation itemized some of the specific projects the EU is implementing to provide support for African states to address mobility and migration and asked for further suggestions on cooperation.

Ambassador Berhane emphasized that the two main areas of crisis that resulted in peoples’ migration were the Horn of Africa and the instability in the Sahel region. He stressed the difference between economic migrants and refugees. At one level, Europe should consider mobilizing and expanding investment in emerging Africa, to enable Africans to live in Africa. With regard to refugees, Ambassador Berhane said the refugees from different countries should be treated with reference to the reality of the situation in their country. Some, for example, were driven to migrate because of war and conflict, others left because of the lack of good governance. More generally, the State Minister listed a number of priority areas for cooperation and partnership between EU and Ethiopia which could include training, education and capacity building as well as public service and awareness creation in rural areas to help deal with illegal human trafficking.

The two sides agreed to discuss these partnership options further and continue similar discussions in other meetings including the EU-Ethiopia Article 8 consultations.

Ethiopian Airlines is powering ahead with a plan to expand its fleet and route network after exceeding its profit target for the 2014-2015 year, its chief executive said in an interview.
The state-owned carrier is ranked the largest airlines in Africa by revenue and profit by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global industry body.
CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said the firm had revenue of 49.4 billion birr ($2.39 billion) in its fiscal year ended July 7, exceeding a target of 43 billion birr. He attributed the growth to a rise in passenger numbers and to expansion of maintenance, catering and aviation training services.
Ethiopian Airlines plans to increase revenue to $10 billion by 2025 by nearly doubling its fleet of 77 aircraft and opening new routes. It currently has 77 planes, including 13 787- 8 Dreamliners by Boeing. It ordered six more Dreamliners in June. It has 50 planes on order altogether, including 14 A350s by Airbus, and expects to increase its fleet of Dreamliners to 30 in 10 years’ time, the CEO said.
The airline has targeted the growing trade ties between Asia and Africa in recent years, as well as that with Brazil by inaugurating flights to Rio de Janeiro. It also launched flights to Los Angeles and Toronto this year.
Tewolde said Ethiopian Airplanes is planning Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Shenzhen as its next Asian destinations, as well as adding Oslo in Europe and New York and Chicago in the United States

Source: Reuters