‘The appeal made by the trade unions at the Summit in Lisbon in 2007 has not been taken into account by those negotiating the strategy. Ignoring the message from the union movement would be all the more unacceptable in the current crisis. The promotion and protection of decent work is clearly one of the key responses to this crisis,’ said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.

In February 2008, ITUC, ITUC-Africa and ETUC adopted a common trade union position on the EU-Africa strategy, arising from an EU-Africa Trade Union Summit in Lisbon in October 2007. This position, including a call for trade union participation in the EU-Africa process itself, was then put forward to the meeting of heads of state and government, which also took place in Lisbon.