The Belgian President of the European Council Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron who is the current chair of the EU's six-month rotating presidency have focused their preparatory meetings for the summit almost exclusively on Africa's Francophone leaders...

On 19 December Congo-Kinshasa's President Félix Tshisekedi and Senegal's President Macky Sall the present and next holders of the AU presidency respectively joined Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and AU Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat in Brussels for talks with European Council President Charles Michel to lay the groundwork for an Africa-Europe summit on 17-18 February...

Now EU Council President Charles Michel has announced with minimum consultation that the EU will host a more informal 'mini-summit' pencilled in for 9 December although this could also fall victim to the pandemic...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and European Council President Charles Michel joined the talks by video-link as did African Union commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo...

On 19 October Belgium’s Cooperation Minister Charles Michel said the Paris Club of official Western creditors had delayed the cancellation of Congo’s debt until 2011...

Like his father Louis Michel Cooperation Minister Charles Michel opposes any sanctions however mild on Rwanda for human rights abuses...

The habitual politeness between Belgium and its former colony grew thinner still during a five-day visit to Kinshasa in late April by three ministers from Brussels Karel De Gucht (Foreign Affairs) Charles Michel (Cooperation) and Pieter De Crem (Defence)...