ECDPM reviews progress of the Joint Africa- Europe Strategy

First published on the Euforic Blog

Africa remained high on the agenda of the international community in 2008. While India and China continued their involvement with African countries, also other global players like Russia, the USA, Turkey or Japan showed their increased or renewed commitment. Here, issues of energy security and climate change were increasingly important. On the other hand global crises like the financial and economic breakdown and the food crisis had negative effects on the development of the African continent.

In December 2007 a Joint Africa-Europe Strategy and its associated Action Plan were adopted. With its partnership approach, the holistic perspective on Africa, its 8 Thematic Partnerships and the envisioned strong role for civil society and parliaments, the Strategy distinguishes itself from previous initiatives in Euro-African relations.

One year after the adoption of the Joint Strategy, an ECDPM paper takes stock of the progress made in 2008 and reflects on its ambitious goals. It shows that progress was mainly made in the area of the institutional architecture. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the involvement of the relevant actors on both EU and African sides with detailed insights into internal working procedures and coordination processes.

European actors: Looking at the European side the authors are concerned about the low commitment of new EU member states. While the old member states are traditionally involved in EU-Africa relations and assumed leading positions in the 8 Thematic Partnerships, new members have stronger linkages with East and Central European and Central Asian countries. Since they can bring in new valuable perspectives it is essential that they find their place in the EU-Africa Partnership.

Although increased coordination efforts can be noted within the European Commission and the Council, the authors still see the danger of overlap with other EU programs including the European Mediterranean Policy and the ACP-EU cooperation.

The authors mention the establishment of the EU Delegation to the African Union and the strengthened role of the EU Special Representative to the AU as remarkable in the institutional development of the Africa-EU Strategy. Through their geographic proximity to the African Union in Addis Ababa they give the EU the opportunity to follow the AU’s development closely.

African actors: Regarding the African side the paper warns that the strong coordinating role of the AU Commission is not met with appropriate financial and human resources. The authors are worried that the EU might overestimate the actual power of the African Union Commission which is by far not a mirror institution of the EU Commission, having less legal competences and a weaker position in the current AU institutional framework.

Furthermore they speak of a very low awareness and commitment regarding the Joint Strategy in all AU member states and the African Regional Communities. Similar to the EU there is a difference in participation between the AU member states with a stronger commitment of the North-African countries, currently assuming all but one of the leading positions in the 8 Thematic Partnerships. The lacking commitment of Southern African countries might hamper the ‘Africa as one’ objective of the Joint Strategy.

Civil society and parliaments: Regarding the envisioned involvement of other stakeholders, in particular parliaments and civil society organizations, the paper draws a rather gloomy picture. Both stakeholders are so far sidelined by the institutional actors in the EU and the AU alike. The modalities and level of their involvement differ in every Thematic Partnership but are generally not clear. Furthermore adequate funding to ensure full participation of CSOs is lacking.

Issues for 2009: Looking ahead, several aspects need to be addressed:

• increase the financial commitment towards the Joint Strategy in Europe and Africa
• ensure coherence with other policy frameworks, mainly the European Mediterranean Policy and ACP-EU cooperation
• deal with capacity and legal asymmetries between the European and African stakeholders
• deal with the past of the European and African integration process (i.e. ongoing African Government Debate and the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty)
• extend ownership of the Strategy beyond the Brussels-Addis axis
• ensure participation of CSOs and parliaments.

The authors highlight that the full commitment of all EU and AU member states is crucial for the success of the Joint Strategy. However, they note that member states on both sides tend to wait with further involvement until the Strategy delivers results and shows added-value compared to existing policy frameworks. On the other side the authors predict that such progress can only be made if all stakeholders including the member states are on board. Strong leadership and commitment are essential in order to escape this ‘chicken or egg’ conundrum.

by Martin Behrens

Visit the ECDPM Europafrica.org for more information and documents regarding the Africa-EU Strategy See also the Euforic newsfeed and dossier on EU-Africa relations

 

The EU as saviour of the African Union?

First published on the Euforic Blog

Two recent reports (in German) by the German Institute of Global and Areas Studies look at Eu-Africa cooperation. Analysing the current status of African continental integration, Christian von Soest concludes that the new African Union Commission faces a major challenge to reduce the economic divides between Africa’s various regional blocs before they become greater threats to continental unity. Further, although the African Union Commission should steer the integration process, it lacks the operative capacity doing so.

GIGA’s Siegmar Schmidt further examines the role of the African Union in the EU development policy framework for Africa. He looks to EU programmes to help close the capacity gap of the AU. He notes that the EU counts on the AU as central partner within the new EU-Africa partnership, but argues that the AU can hardly meet these high expectations without external help. Consequently the EU supports various areas including peace and security, institutional architecture and the development program NEPAD.

Schmidt warns that even with external donor support, the AU might not yet be a reliable partner. This is shown by the weak reactions taken to deal with the crisis in Zimbabwe. With the raise of Chinese cooperation in Africa, there is furthermore the possibility that some states might lose interest in cooperation with Europe.

Against this background, the EU’s engagement will likely be increased so as not to lose influence on its neighbouring continent.

by Martin Behrens

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Creating a true and equal partnership between Europe and Africa?

First published on the Euforic Blog

One week before the EU-Africa Summit takes place in Lisbon, experts invited by the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and WEED met on 29 November 2007 in Berlin to discuss the challenges ahead of a true EU-African Partnership.

During the summit, the European Union and the African Union plan to sign a new Strategic Partnership Agreement and a Plan of Action for its implementation. The aim is to concentrate segmented European Africa policies under one coherent framework. Designed by representatives from both continents, it focuses on new and old challenges such as peace and security, sustainable development and democratic governance.

Participants in the Berlin conference discussed whether institutions on both continents are prepared to take the EU-Africa relations to a new higher level and they questioned if the new cooperation is going to be a true partnership between equals.

In his introductory statement, Sven Grimm from the German Development Institute summed up 50 years of African-European relations. In his view the new EU-Africa strategy was prepared to respond to the political changes in Africa and Europe such as the upcoming of the African Union or the EU enlargement. It can also be seen as a reaction to the appearance of China as an important actor on the African continent. Grimm noted a change of focus which puts development aid behind trade and a stronger reflection of African views within the document.

Siegmar Schmidt (University Koblenz-Landau) pointed out that the document reflects a smallest common denominator between the different actors and is more a diplomatic paper than a real strategy with clear aims and concrete plans of action.

The first panel dealt with the current EU Africa relations including issues like governance, security, energy and economic development. Speakers from research and civil society like Stefan Mair (SWP), Siegmar Schmidt (University Koblenz-Landau), George Ehusani (Catholic Bishops Conference Nigeria) talked about progress, problems and policy recommendations.

Father George Ehusani identified the low level of knowledge Africans have about EU-Africa relations and criticized the preparation process which lead to the new EU-Africa strategy:

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An important role to empower African civil society was attributed to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). However, participants said that the ‘naming and shaming’ culture within the mechanism does not go along with the African culture of ‘consultation and advice’ and might therefore be the wrong strategy.

Sven Grimm underlined the positive trend of the APRM. In his opinion the non-participation of some African states shows that the mechanism is treated seriously:

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Prof. Siegmar Schmidt pointed out that the EU-Africa Partnership is largely based on a strong and effective African Union. He fears that the EU might overestimate its new partner which will need intensive capacity building to deliver towards the expectations. Hear his comments (in German):

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In the second panel, participants discussed the new strategy which is going to be signed at the EU-Africa Summit, focusing on how to implement the strategy to become political reality. Keynote speakers were Aldo Ajello (Former EU Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region), Herta Däubler-Gmelin (Head of Human Rights Committee of the German Bundestag), John Mahama (Member of the Parliament of Ghana) and Matthias Mülmenstädt (German Federal Office).

Discussions also covered the ongoing EPA negotiations between the EU and African regions.

Klaus Schilder from WEED remarked that not enough time was spent by both sides to find a common policy and that the EU enforced its position without further analysis of its old trade policies towards Africa. Matthias Mülmenstädt from the German Foreign Service predicted that the talks will lead to a minimal solution which can be carried to the WTO in 2008.

John Mahama from the Ghanaian Parliament criticized the low involvement of parliamentarians during the EPA talks as well as during the preparation of the EU-Africa Strategy:

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Regarding the development of democracy and human rights in Africa Mrs. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, head of the parliamentary committee for human rights of the German Bundestag, stressed the common basis of EU and the African Union. Questioned on the new role of China and its low appreciation for human rights in its cooperation policy, she mentioned that even the Chinese increasingly start to look after human rights in Africa since the kidnapping of Chinese workers in Nigeria and strong opposition by some African leaders against new colonization attempts by China.

Towards the end of the conference, all participants agreed that the new EU-Africa Strategy is going to be an improvement for relations between Europe and Africa.

Story by Martin Behrens

Have a look on the recently published summary report of the conference.