15 September 2011: The leaders of South Africa and the European Union (EU) met on 15 September 2011 at Kruger National Park, South Africa, to reaffirm their commitment to a strategic partnership based on shared values and interests, including sustainable development, climate change and biodiveristy.

This was the fourth South Africa-EU Summit, and participants produced a Joint Communiqué to take stock of cooperation in the area of science, technology and innovation, (including the recent supporting seminars to this Summit on minerals and mining and climate change research), as well as on environment and sustainable development including green growth, climate action and biodiversity.

Leaders committed to strive jointly for an ambitious, comprehensive and balanced outcome for the UNFCCC negotiations, and to work together ahead of and during the Durban Climate Change Conference, as an opportunity to agree on actions to operationalize fully the key decisions reached in Cancun and address issues that remained unresolved in Cancun and from the Bali Action Plan and Roadmap.

Leaders also stressed the importance of the Rio+20/UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), noting that the summit must give a strong global push to the transformation of economies into resource-efficient, low-emission economies leading to the creation of new green jobs and further eradication of poverty; and should also result in significantly improved global governance for sustainable development to tackle remaining major challenges both in developmental and environmental terms. In that context, leaders agreed to further consult each other during the preparatory phase of the Rio+20 Conference. The fifth South Africa-EU Summit will convene in Brussels, Belgium in 2012. [South Africa-EU Joint Communiqué]