Africa and the EU
Over the past decades the EU and Africa have forged a strong partnership. The EU is the largest export market for African merchandise. Around 85% of Africa's cotton, fruit and vegetable exports are destined for European Union countries. But it is above all in the context of development cooperation that Europe is the continent's prime partner. Between 1983 and 2003 alone, the EU tripled its financial support for Africa from five to fifteen billion euro. A large number of agreements govern development cooperation. The Cotonou Agreement on cooperation with the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states (ACP) is a central plank of our relations.
It is not only in the field of development policy that the progressive Europeanization of our policy on Africa can be seen. It is also reflected in new policy instruments such as the EU mission in the Congo (EUFOR) and the financing of the African Union AMIS mission in Darfur.
Why an EU Strategy for Africa?
Africa is a continent on the rise, as has been clearly shown by the establishment of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). The enhanced role now played by Regional Economic Communities (REC) in Africa and the emergence of a new political elite in Africa's states have changed the face of the continent. This is also having an impact on relations between Africa and Europe.
But it is not only the African continent that has transformed itself. The EU has also changed. It has been joined by 12 new Member States. Enlargement has increased the EU's political and economic powers, but has also confronted it with new tasks and challenges in coordinating its aid to third countries.
The EU's relations with Africa have for all too long been characterized by excessive fragmentation. While some EU Member States have for years maintained political, economic and cultural ties with individual African countries and regions, others are relative newcomers to Africa and development cooperation. At Community level, the European Commission has acquired considerable experience in the field over the past decades and has concluded a series of agreements with various African regions, giving the parties predictability and security.
The goal of the Strategy for Africa is to give the EU a single comprehensive, integrated and long-term framework for its relations with Africa.
The aim is a comprehensive partnership with Africa
On 15 December 2005 the European Council adopted the EU Strategy for Africa, with which the EU seeks to establish a broad partnership with Africa. The relatively short document is to be fleshed out with concrete projects in coordination with the African Union over the period up to 2015.
In contrast to the Cotonou Agreement, which primarily focuses on sub-Saharan countries, the Strategy for Africa includes all countries on the African continent in the EU's first attempt to bring together the diverse development policy programmes pursued by the EU Commission and the Member States. The Strategy sets out joint objectives in line with the motto of "one Africa, one Europe". The EU has made good governance a precondition for successful partnership. Support can only be meaningful, says the EU, if governments enhance transparency, combat corruption and protect minority rights. Equality, partnership and shared responsibility are the principles underlying the Strategy. This means that partners' institutions should be recognized and respected, and reciprocal political and economic relations established. All projects are to be coordinated with the African countries. The EU is thereby responding to the African reform initiatives of recent years, such as the transformation of the African Union (AU) and its New Partnership for Africa. In the words of EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, the AU is a "solid partner" and its reforms evidence of the emergence of a new generation of political leaders who want to modernize Africa. These reforms will be further supported by the EU Strategy for Africa.
The priorities of the EU Strategy for Africa are:
- Peace and security: The idea is to work with the African Union, sub-regional organizations and African countries to predict, prevent and mediate conflicts.
- Human rights and governance: Human rights, including the rights of women, children and other vulnerable groups, are to be promoted and protected. Good governance programmes are to be supported, as is the fight against corruption, human trafficking, illegal drugs and organized crime. The growth of participatory democracy and accountability in Africa is also to be supported.
- Development assistance: Aid payments are to be increased, and more effective and predictable EU financial assistance for Africa secured.
- Sustainable economic growth, regional integration and trade: a stable, efficient and harmonized legal business framework in Africa is to be promoted. At the same time the EU is to help integrate Africa fully into the world trade system. Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa's regional groupings are to be concluded by 2008. Furthermore, Africa should be given support in countering the effects of climate change.
- Investing in people: African efforts to ensure that all children have free primary education of good quality by 2015 will be supported. The EU will also promote the development of Euro-Africa networks of universities and centres of excellence. Predictable financing for health systems in Africa is also to be provided. Our support for the fight against infectious diseases is to be enhanced, and food security for the most vulnerable improved. The protection of refugees is to be strengthened. The importance of women should be recognized in all our policies towards Africa in view of their crucial role in economic growth.
The primary aim of the EU's Strategy for Africa is to help Africa achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG). These overarching objectives will be complemented and enhanced by the specific goals pursued under the Cotonou Agreement, the EU-South Africa Agreement on Trade, Development and Cooperation, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy (including support for political reform and economic modernization).
Joint EU-Africa Strategy
At the second EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon on 8-9 December 2007, EU and African representatives adopted a Joint EU-Africa Strategy that builds on the EU's Strategy for Africa.Prior to adopting this Strategy, the African Union and EU institutions conducted a major public consultation in 2007 to gather ideas and proposals from numerous state and non-state stakeholders. This consultation process has produced a joint strategy that is not the preserve of civil servants, but which the civil societies of the two continents can identify with, which they have contributed to and which they want to support through their own work. This public consultation process gave all interested groups the opportunity to influence the debate on relations between the EU and Africa.
Last updated 18.03.2008