The delegation from the European Commission, following the interruption by COVID-19 outbreak, has resumed negotiation on the EU-Nigeria readmission agreement as part of dialogue and broad engagement with Nigeria.
At the 2-day programme which started on Thursday in Abuja, the EU ambassador to Nigeria and Head of delegation, Samuella Isopi said the negotiation became necessary, so as to broaden partnership and engagement with Nigeria migration and mobility.
According to Samuella, the agreement will be of mutual benefits to both parties as she hopes they find some common grounds on many issues. She also noted that it was the fourth high-level visit this year and that more is expected is expected to come.
She however expressed optimism that the cooperation will extend the partnership between Nigeria and EU as well as strengthen dialogue on migration and other issues of common interest. It is expected that the outcome of the negotiations will improve the existing bilateral relationship between Nigeria and European Union on migration and mobility among other agreements.
Her words: “We’ve had several rounds and sessions in the past years including COVID-19 time, and today we are resuming the discussion in physical presence.
“We have the delegations from the European Commission that are here in Abuja to restart the discussion.
For us, this is part of our broad partnership and engagement with Nigeria migration and mobility, one of the priority areas on which we reach to work together both in the frame of a new political ministerial roadmap that we have developed together and in the frame of the new cooperation program between European Union and Nigeria that we launched earlier this year.
“In the meantime, we have been working with the Nigeria Foreign Affairs Ministry together with our member States to improve cooperation on returns and to strengthen our dialogue on migration issues.
“So, today is an important step in that process and we feel confident that we will be able to move ahead and to find some common grounds on many issues and to try to reach the final, which is to have a good readmission agreement which is of mutual benefits for the two parties.
“This is a very important aspect for us. This must be seen as an element of our broad engagement that covers all areas.”
Speaking further, Samuella said the commission will be hosting two more high level visits in the couple of weeks, to bring forward the conversation already started on EU-Nigeria energy partnership.
“This is simply to confirm to you that we are engaged, that we have an extensive partnership, that we work together, that we have many success stories in our cooperation and that we are sure that we will make good progress also on this readmission effort.
“On migration and mobility, we also have programs to support migration governance in Nigeria.
What we want to achieve is a win-win cooperation. The European Union is Nigeria’s biggest neighbor. We have a population of more than 400 million people, Nigeria also has a population which is growing, migration has always been there and will continue to be there.
“So we have common interests in working together and see how together we can manage the positive aspects of migration and also the less positive ones such as irregular migration and this is the spirit.
“Maybe we will not be able to achieve the final result today, our objective is to keep the process going to a reasonable time frame to reach a common understanding to have a good agreement. Behind us, we have a strong force of all 27 European Union States that support this process and that will benefit together with Nigeria.”
Also speaking with journalists, the Nigeria ambassador to Belgium and Head of Nigeria delegation to EU, Obinna Onowu said the importance of the exercise to both parties cannot be overemphasised as issues surrounding migration are set to be ironed out.
“We are restarting a negotiation that was stalled a few years ago because of COVID-19. This time with the team from the EU, we are discussing migration, which is important for both sides.
“Today we expect that we are going to have a structure to manage the movements through the EU and out of the EU.
“Basically from out of EU but then at the same time, we are also looking at the issue from comprehensive perspective in the sense that we not just talking about the returns, we are also looking at how to ensure that we provide access to legal migration and then also for reintegration and other things attached to the exercise,” Obinna said.
