President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the European Council, Mr António Luís Santos da Costa, and President of the European Commission, Dr Ursula von der Leyen, met on the margins of the G20 Summit on 20 November 2025.
This meeting follows a series of engagements between the leaders, including at the multilateral fora such as the UNGA80 in New York, the EU's Global Gateway Forum in Brussels and the recent ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
The Leaders reviewed progress on the key political and economic outcomes agreed to at the 8th EU-South Africa Summit held in March 2025, in Cape Town.
In the context of South Africa's G20 Presidency and ahead of the 7th EU-AU Summit on 24-25 November in Luanda, Angola, this meeting took place against the backdrop of growing challenges to multilateralism and the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Leaders reiterated their March commitment to a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in Ukraine and in the occupied Palestinian Territories. They also recalled the importance of multilateralism, the centrality of the United Nations Charter and the support for a renewed global financing framework for sustainable development, following the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville from 30 June to 3 July 2025 and Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP30) from 6 to 21 November in Belém, Brazil.
The Leaders welcomed the signature of the EU-South Africa Clean Trade and Investment Partnership (CTIP), which will create new trade and investment opportunities, while supporting decarbonisation objectives through a tailored, flexible, and targeted approach taking into account the priorities of South Africa and the EU. In addition to facilitating trade and investment in clean supply chains, this partnership will also serve as a forum for regulatory cooperation between the EU and South Africa in areas of mutual interest.
The Leaders also welcomed the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Minerals and Metals Value Chains, which will promote value addition and beneficiation of critical minerals close to the source of extraction and will enhance economic and industrial integration between South Africa and the EU.
Delivering on the commitment taken up at the EU-South Africa Summit earlier this year, the two sides launched the EU - South AfricaEnergy Dialogue in September 2025 and agreed to raise it to Ministerial level in 2026. The Dialogue provides a platform to deepen collaboration in areas such as transmission, clean energy technologies and additional just transition initiatives. Both sides also reiterated the commitment to work together towards future export of electro Sustainable Aviation Fuel (e-SAF) to the EU market in line with the commitment made during the EU-SA Summit in March 2025.
Leaders reiterated their commitment to facilitate bilateral trade in animals, plants and their products. In particular, South Africa reaffirmed its commitment to enable trade of poultry, including through a conclusive discussion on regionalisation, as well as further assess and process EU market access applications based on the information to be provided by exporting countries as a matter of priority. The EU signaled readiness to advance listing South Africa as eligible to export shelf-stable composite products to the EU market. South Africa has shared progress reports on various EU market access requests. Both sides committed to identify tangible deliverables to demonstrate progress in fulfilling their respective commitments by the next Trade and Investment Dialogue.
The two sides commended the agreement to facilitate bilateral cumulation of batteries through a temporary derogation from the Rules of Origin under the provisions of the EU – SADC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to be submitted by South Africa. This derogation would aim at promoting battery manufacturing in the EU and South Africa and facilitating South Africa to employ batteries made in the EU and South Africa to export electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to the EU market under the EU-SADC EPA.
The EU announced five projects as part of the implementation of the Team Europe Global Gateway Investment Package for South Africa of nearly EUR 12 billion, unveiled at the Global Gateway Forum in Brussels on 9 October 2025. These projects included three blended finance and technical assistance facilities on green hydrogen, minerals and metals in the e-batteries value chain; a European Investment Bank (EIB) loan to Transnet to support the decarbonisation of South Africa's transport sector; as well as support from EIB under the EU-supported Human Development Accelerator initiative to boost South Africa's vaccine's manufacturing capacities. The two sides acknowledged the role of the implementing partners, including the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Industrial Development Cooperation, Transnet and Biovac, as well as the EIB, the German Development Bank (KfW) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
The Leaders acknowledged the ongoing negotiations on the Horizontal Aviation Agreement, and the commitment by both sides to strengthen cooperation on maritime security in the context of the Djibouti Code of Conduct.
The two sides noted the recent high-level discussions and technical exchanges dedicated to strengthening cooperation on environment, specifically on issues related to the water sector.
The Leaders took note of ongoing efforts to advance cooperation on peace, security and defence, notably by establishing a dedicated Dialogue as set out in the Summit Declaration of March. It will strengthen cooperation, including on countering terrorism, cybersecurity, maritime security and mediation. They further concurred that tackling the underlying drivers of conflict remains essential for achieving durable peace, security and stability.
The meeting took place in the same spirit of partnership and cooperation that characterised the Summit in Cape Town. Both sides undertook to redouble efforts to address the outstanding issues to foster shared prosperity based on the principles of equality and mutual benefit.
The EU looked forward to hosting the 9th EU - South AfricaSummit in Brussels on a mutually suitable date to be agreed between the parties.
