30-06-201430/06/2014, AERAP welcomes EU?’s decision to declare 2015 the European Year for Development

Brussels, June 30, 2014: The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP) supports the Committee on Development?s recently prepared and negotiated legal acts which include:?

• The Development Cooperation Instrument (2014-2020) which was adopted in December 2013 after a long negotiation period with the European Council and the European Commission; and
• A decision to declare 2015 the European Year for Development, which was agreed between the European Council and the European Parliament in early February and adopted by plenary and signed in April, 2014.??

AERAP, a stakeholder platform of industry, academia and the public sector, established to define and implement priorities for radio astronomy cooperation between Africa and Europe, supports and welcomes the initiatives brought forward by the Development Committee and looks forward to engaging in the new policy initiatives associated with the European Year for Development, 2015. ?

The year 2015 is a pivotal year, as it marks the deadline by which the Millennium Development Goals should have been achieved. It is also the year in which a new framework, strategy or paradigm for the decade to come should be adopted and should begin to be implemented. The European Year for Development may give a strong boost to the on-going global process of elaborating a successor framework to the current Millennium Development Goals.

The overall goals of AERAP are to leverage radio astronomy, advance scientific discovery, improve knowledge transfer and stimulate competitiveness across both continents. The platform also enables effective dialogue to build a shared vision for international cooperation in radio astronomy.?

In order to bring the role of Africa-EU science and technology collaboration for mutual social-economic benefit to the forefront of future collaboration plans, AERAP plans to organise a Working Meeting with the newly formed European Parliament in the month of September 2014.

The thematic focus of the engagement with the European Parliament will be the post-2015 development agenda which will define the global development framework after the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

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Editor?s Note

The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP)

AERAP ?is a response to the calls of the European Parliament, through the adoption of the Written Declaration 45/2011, and of the Heads of State of the African Union, through their decision ?Assembly/AU/Dec.407 CXVIII?, for radio astronomy to be a priority focus area for Africa-EU cooperation. AERAP is a stakeholder forum of industry, academia and the public sector established to define and implement priorities for radio astronomy cooperation between Africa and Europe.

The overall goals of the platform are to leverage radio astronomy, advance scientific discovery, improve knowledge transfer and stimulate competitiveness across both continents. The platform will also enable effective dialogue to build a shared vision for international cooperation in radio astronomy.

Further information on AERAP:?aerap.org

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For further information on the initiatives negotiated by the European Parliament?s Development Committee:?http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/deve/home.html?