Is the EU-AU Partnership a Genuine Attempt or Another Shallow Gesture?
Rory Sullivan, Online Branch, Staff Writer
March 18th, 2022
On February 17th and 18th, 2022, the 6th European Union-African Union Summit was held in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the current concerns of both sides. From the European side, this summit was a chance to set the reset button on their relations with Africa through the creation of “the foundations for a renewed and deeper partnership”. From the African side, the summit was viewed as an opportunity to fight for issues that African countries are facing continent-wide, such as the lack of COVID-19 vaccines, a lack of electricity, and the reallocation of special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This year at the summit, there were four themes: solidarity, security, peace and sustainability, and sustained economic development and prosperity. In the five previous summits, the themes were more or less the same, being reused summit after summit. Since the summit first began in 2000, there has not been any significant, long-lasting change that has come from them. It begs the question of whether the summits are simply meant to be public exchanges of ideas for show, or genuine efforts to better the partnership between the two continents. Moreover, who is the summit supposed to benefit? As it stands now, it seems that these summits are following in the footsteps of previous European-African relations - one in which colonial powers and patronizing treatment are front and centre.
There are many critics and skeptics in Africa who have brought up the performative nature of Europe at the summit, the lack of both understanding and care for the issues brought up by African leaders, and the ulterior motives behind European leaders. According to one critic, “The summit saw only hesitant steps towards understanding by European leaders, while African leaders remained business-like and unimpressed.” Africa, especially during the pandemic, has been suffering economically and socially. With only 11% of the African population being vaccinated and 600 million without access to electricity, vaccines and energy were two of the biggest areas of concern discussed at the summit. Despite these issues being at the forefront of the discussion, African perspectives were still ignored. The EU reaffirmed their commitment to delivering 450 million COVID-19 vaccines by mid-2022, a goal that has still not been met, despite African leaders pushing to get a waiver on the intellectual property rights on vaccines to speed up production. Resistance from Europe on this issue is based on the argument that this process would take years, though there has been evidence from research that this would not be the case. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called the vaccine discrepancy between Africa and Europe a “vaccine apartheid”. In addition, Africa has expressed interest in investing in their own energy reserves due to the large number of people without access to electricity. However, European leaders are strongly opposed to this idea due to the “environmental” impacts despite continuing to invest in their own energy reserves and failing to offer alternative methods to solving Africa’s electricity crisis. Meanwhile, African nations have a comparably low carbon footprint in contrast to developed nations. A $150 billion Africa-Europe Investment Package has been announced, in which sustainable energy is one of the goals, however, concrete solutions have yet to be proposed.
It is clear that while it might appear as though African interests are being genuinely considered on paper, in reality this is not the case. In truth, one of the major reasons Europe is interested in “resetting” their relationship with Africa is due to the increasing interest that China and Russia have in African development. As one article on the topic puts it, “These new actors in Africa provide viable alternatives to the EU’s historical influence on the continent. Importantly, they allow African decision makers to exercise more agency – by asserting African interests, norms, and values – in African affairs, something which the EU consistently promised in negotiations, but failed to deliver on.” Europe’s main concern is not the wellbeing of those in Africa, but ensuring that they are not falling behind in the competition between world powers Russia, and China for influence in Africa. The Global Gateway initiative, which is $150 billion in EU investments reserved for African innovation and development, came soon after the announcement of China’s Belt and Roads initiative in Africa. With the conflict between Ukraine and Russia continuing, the EU now needs to look to Africa to replace the gas they primarily receive from Russia, further enforcing the fact that it is their own interests that are at the forefront of these “partnership” discussions.
The conflict in Ukraine is bringing increasing complications for Africa as well. Egypt relies on Russia and Ukraine for 70% of its wheat imports, with another 15 other African countries relying on them for half their wheat supplies. Due to the poor response from developed nations during the COVID-19 pandemic and the inadequate efforts to deliver vaccines to Africa, there is a significant lack of trust that exists between African countries towards the EU when it comes to their grand promises. The UN General Assembly recently passed a resolution to publicly condemn Russia, and many African nations chose to abstain from the vote or not participate at all. Without a substantive change in how Europe sees African nations, one in which they view them as equal partners who can mutually benefit rather than a way for Europe to maintain dominance, Africa may be forced to pick a side. While some may criticize Africa if they choose to align themselves on the sides of China and Russia, the reality is that Europe has never taken Africa seriously - treating Africa in a paternal and colonialist manner while also failing to prioritize their interests. It is unknown what the future holds for African foreign relations, but one thing is for certain: Africa is stuck between the opposing West and the East, and only it has the ability to decide what is best for its future.