Committee on International Trade Ordinary meeting
2 September 2026
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INTA European Parliament
Follow its sittings06:07 - 08:54
Speaker 1
So, dear colleagues, welcome back after the summer break. I hope everybody could relax and everybody has reloaded the batteries. And I guess some of our colleagues lost their watch. So, nevertheless, we will start. And we have an agenda proposed.
Any wishes to change the agenda?
It is not the case, so the agenda is adopted. We have the chair's announcement, so this is webstreamed. Also after the summer break, I welcome our guests from Lüneburg to Ljubljana, from Tallinn to Thessaloniki, and perhaps also from the other side of the Atlantic, I guess specifically when Ditte is here, there might be also some interest. We have interpretation, so speak in a moderate way, please. Point three, we had a meeting of the coordinators on the 13th of July and the minutes will be included in the minutes of today's committee meeting and if there are no objections until the end of this meeting, it is adopted.
And the minutes of the meeting of the 22nd, 23rd of June and of the 6th of July will be approved also if there are no objections until the end of this meeting. And then we switch to point five, this is the state of play of the negotiation for a sustainable investment facilitation agreement between EU and the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.
As you know, we had this sustainable investment facilitation agreement, a similar one, quite in good practice with South Africa. And now it's going to West Africa, to Côte d'Ivoire, where we have an EPA and also some elements regarding the cocoa initiative. So, nevertheless, we will now hear from the Commission how the state of play is and what the negotiation will bring. And I'm happy to welcome Jorge Vitorino, well known. He spent a lot of time here in the INTA committee, and I'm happy that you are back.
You have the floor for eight minutes.
08:54 - 13:12
Speaker 2
Good morning and thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Indeed, a pleasure to be back, in a different quality, of course. But indeed, this is also a very timely moment to discuss and for us to look into this particular development in our relations with Africa, in particular with Côte d'Ivoire, which is, we should not forget, the largest, the third largest economy in West Africa and actually an economic engine in the West African Economic and Monetary Union.
And it's a partner which is key in West Africa, growing at an average of more than 6% in the last years, which has a total trade with the EU of 12 billion, which is not insignificant. And we are already the largest export market, absorbs 30% of Côte d'Ivoire's, of Ivorian exports, mainly in cocoa beans and processed cocoa. But we are also the largest supplier, we supply around 24% of Ivorian imports. In with regard to investment, we are also the largest investor, we account for about 40% of the foreign direct investment that is set in Côte d'Ivoire, some 3.8 billion in 2024. And so this strong relation that we have already with Côte d'Ivoire offers actually an opportunity for us to develop it further through precisely a sustainable investment facilitation agreement.
And there's a number of axes of work that this sustainable investment facilitation agreement that we have now launched the negotiations with Côte d'Ivoire to first of all to work with Côte d'Ivoire in improving the investment climate, to help also Côte d'Ivoire to implement their national development plan, to build on the work that we have already been doing together, in particular on trade relations but also on investment facilitation and also lastly the possibility to go further in our bilateral relation. So let me just highlight very briefly mindful of the time constraints that this SIFA once negotiated will indeed offer the opportunity for us to work together with Côte d'Ivoire in improving their business climate, in addressing issues like enhancing transparency, simplifying procedures, including through digitalization, strengthening the administrative coordination between different services and also fostering a more structured dialogue with investors. And these are issues that have been identified as important for potential investors. It will also be as I mentioned a possibility an opportunity for us to work with Côte d'Ivoire in the implementation of what they have adopted as their development strategy.
And this is their national development plan, le Plan National de Développement, which covers the period of 2026-2030, so four years, and aims at a total investment budget of 175 billion euros. And this national development plan actually relies on assessment that 70% of this investment will be covered, should be covered by private investment. And this is, this means of course that it is very important for us to work together with Côte d'Ivoire to improve the conditions that help attract more sustainable and responsible private investment. Then the other opportunity that we can base our work on the SIFA also is the possibility to build on what work we have done so far. And this you rightly mentioned, we have the EPA.
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