28 Apr 2014

The Global Game Has Changed : What Role For Europe-Africa Relations?


The conference intends to look back at what the EU-Africa partnership has achieved so far – including the outcomes of the IV summit – and exchange views about the opportunities and challenges to EU-Africa relations now as in the next few years, in a context of rapidly evolving continental and global dynamics. Having as basis the need for a political and mental shift in these relations, the debates will focus on:

The main changes in the priorities, needs, expectations and ambitions of both continents in recent years, assessing what has been achieved and how persistent challenges have been addressed;
The added-value of EU-Africa relations vis a vis the growing diversification of flows and partners for Africa, as well as the potential for increased dialogue and cooperation between this multitude of players;
What should the partnership aim at in the near future and where should both parties focus on to ensure broader participation, improve cooperation and reinforce political dialogue, including on global issues:

The flyer for the event can be found here
The confirmed speakers profiles can be found here

This event is partnered with and organised by the following organisations:




Photo courtesy of Glyn Lowe

Building a true partnership between Africa and Europe


Africans expect an equal partnership not a one-sided relationship between former colonies and their once occupying powers

When EU and African Heads of State met in Brussels at the start of April they were presented with the opportunity to begin to forge a new partnership between two continents that have had a long and sometimes troubled relationship.

Africans expect an equal partnership not a one-sided relationship between former colonies and their once occupying powers. The EU-Africa Summit has come at the end of an unusual period of both tension and increased cooperation between Europe and the nations of Africa, with both sides wanting to work together but seemingly struggling at times to understand the concerns and actions of the other.

How this period of flux settles may well decide the course of our relations for a generation. The reasons behind this change in the tone of our relations are complex, but some of the causes are easy to identify. The last decade has seen a transformation across much of Africa: democracy has taken root and now most sub-Saharan countries hold regular democratic elections. Sustained growth of over 6% has doubled average GDP per head and Africa has shifted from being seen as a perpetual recipient of donor aid to becoming a centre for global investment with over $2.7 trillion dollars of FDI pouring into the continent.

This trend suggests a lessening reliance on Europe by African nations yet there is much that we can both gain from partnership. Even as Africa has for some years now been one of the fastest growing economic regions, with 6 out the 10 fastest growing economies in the world, while others have flatlined, European countries with their multi-trillion euro industrialised economies have much to offer in terms of investment, know-how and knowledge transfer. But increasingly Africans expect an equal partnership not a one-sided relationship between former colonies and their once occupying powers.
Sometimes we in Africa have felt European nations have not always appreciated that being independent means we will make decisions other countries do not agree with.

A case in point is the International Criminal Court. Funded primarily by European nations this intergovernmental institution has been a cause for considerable concern. Many Africans are baffled by the continuing charges against a democratically elected sitting Head of State, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, not least when the ICC’s prosecutor has admitted publicly she has no compelling evidence against him. The African Union has voiced its concerns that the ICC is in danger of becoming a geopolitical tool for its funders rather than a judicial instrument for all its signatories. My own President Yoweri Museveni has indicated that an example of this is the clear request by the African Union to the UN to halt trials; the request was then not supported by the European permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Similarly, for many years a number of African countries have been criticised for adopting forms of government that some in Europe felt were not being democratic enough and failed to adequately reflect the wishes of their populations. However, when democratically elected African governments, such as in Uganda, have reached decisions that have overwhelming public support in our countries, especially on social issues, they have been condemned. Again, we are left wondering is democratic accountability in Africa only important when the views expressed chime with those held by people outside our continent?

Yet these sources of tension are in contrast to the increased interdependence between Europe and Africa over matters of security. Where once Africa was overly dependent on European countries as guarantors of stability and peace now European and African nations work together.

For example the last twelve months have seen France in cooperation with a multi-country African force target the Islamist threat in Mali, and intervene in the Central African Republic. Off the coast of Somalia the EUNAVFOR naval operation has reduced piracy in conjunction with African nations' navies. But even with this increased partnership Africa is now, more than at any other time in the last 50 years, managing its own security affairs.

Uganda has been at the forefront of much of this new self-sufficiency providing the largest contingent of troops to the African Union AMISOM peacekeeping mission to Somalia that has pushed back Islamic militants and allowed the development of democratic government. Similarly in South Sudan Uganda heeded a request from the elected administration to intervene to reduce the potentially devastating actions by rebel forces. Though disagreements and tensions are bound to arise between EU-African countries in the future the summit provided an opportunity to resolve some of the issues that have been coming to the fore.

It is in all of our interests to try to respect each others' opinions, even when we may not agree with them, and to deepen our mutually beneficial relationship. Key to such a new understanding is that, as never before, Europe and other western countries need Africa.

Africa can no longer be seen as merely a source of resources and a recipient of aid, but instead must now be treated as an equal partner, so that Europe and Africa can forge ahead together in our increasingly multi-polar and interdependent world.


Hon. Sam Kutesa (@samkutesa) is Foreign Minister of the Republic of Uganda

This article first appeared in EUObserver

This is a guest post; views may not represent that of ECDPM

Photo courtesy of The Council of the European Union



17 Apr 2014

INFOGRAPHIC : Africans abroad paying more to send money home

This week's infographic comes from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) that accompanies the launch of their report on the effect of transfer fees on the levels of remittances to Africa.

According to ODI, these excessive fees cost the African continent $1.8 billion a year; enough money to pay for the primary school education of 14 million children in the region.

This is because workers are paying an average of 12% in fees to transfer money back to relatives in sub-Saharan Africa. To put that in context, a worker sending $200 home to provide for a relative’s education would incur a $25 fee.
 
The global community pledged to cut remittance charges to 5% by 2014, yet this ‘super tax’ shows there is a long way to go.

Our report urges governments to increase competition in money transfer remittances and to establish greater transparency on how fees are set by all market operators.


14 Apr 2014

Conference “The Global Game has Changed: What Role for Europe-Africa Relations?”


  • Start: 29 de April 2014, às 09:45
  • Venue: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Avenida de BernaLisboa)

How can EU-Africa relations move forward? This is the core question to debate in the Seminar, which intends to look back at what the EU-Africa partnership has achieved so far – including the outcomes of the IV Summit – and exchange views about the opportunities and challenges to EU-Africa relations now as in the next few years, in a context of rapidly evolving continental and global dynamics.

There is a need for a political and mental shift in the way we perceive the EU-Africa partnership, as well as a need for a clear definition of interests and of the parties’ mutual responsibility for this partnership to move forward towards an effective political dialogue. Therefore, the seminar will discuss and reflect on the following key issues:

(i) The main changes in the priorities, needs, expectations and ambitions of both continents in recent years, assessing what has been achieved and how persistent challenges have been addressed;

(ii) The added-value of EU-Africa relations vis a vis the growing diversification of flows and partners for Africa, as well as the potential for increased dialogue and cooperation between this multitude of players;

(iii) What should the partnership aim at in the near future and where should both parties focus on to ensure broader participation, improve cooperation and reinforce political dialogue, including on global issues.

This is an optimal time to gather decision-makers, civil society representatives, academics, entrepreneurs and other interested stakeholders around multidisciplinary, policy-oriented and open discussions on the future of EU-Africa relations. We look forward to your participation!





Free entrance, upon registration that can be done here

The partner organisations have organised a seminar on this theme in Lisbon, on December 2012 – the report can be accessed here.

The Europe-Africa Policy Research Network (EARN) launched, in 2010, a publication on EU-Africa relations, available here.

Please also see the official website of the Partnership.

Photo Courtesy of Rustam Aliyev




11 Apr 2014

EU-Africa trade: between a rock and a hard place?

The current EU-US negotiations should be a wake-up call for African governments to be proactive and limit the burden that a trade deal of this magnitude will unquestionably bring along. 

by Annie Mutamba




9 Apr 2014

Two sides to Ethiopia: the plea for press freedom

Jailed Ethiopian journalists.
by Jean-Paul Marthoz.

There are two Ethiopias. Or better said there two narratives about Ethiopia.

On one side, there is the Ethiopia as celebrated by the international aid community and the European Union : a country which is growing fast and seriously fighting poverty, a country which wisely uses the considerable international assistance that it receives to channel it towards sustainable development.

4 Apr 2014

Differences on sanctions and conditionality casting a shadow over EU-Africa summit



By Karen Del Biondo


On 2-3rd April 80 delegations from the European Union and Africa gathered together for the 4th EU-Africa summit. The summit was meant to revive the 2007 Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES). The general assessment was that the JAES had failed to deliver, and that a revision of the strategy was needed to finally reach the objective of ‘moving beyond a donor-recipient relationship’.

Once again, the summit was preceded by a discussion on the participation of the Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. When Brussels denied a visa to his wife Grace Mugabe, who is on the EU sanctions list, Mugabe decided to stay away from the summit, and called on other African leaders to do the same. The call was largely ignored by the other African leaders, with the notable exception of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, who sent a ministerial delegation to replace him declaring that ‘time must pass wherein we are looked as subjects, we are told who must come, who must not come’.

Although the discussion on Mugabe’s participation did not block the summit, the issue does indicate some major points of disagreement in the EU-Africa relationship. It should be reminded that the same question caused the second EU-Africa summit to be postponed from 2003 until December 2007. The main issue in the future, however, will most likely not be Zimbabwe. The suspension of the EU travel ban on Mugabe to allow him to participate in the summit had actually been meant as a signal of the desire to normalise relations with Zimbabwe.

Nonetheless, some recent issues have sparked a fear in Africa that the EU is stepping up conditionality and sanctions, despite rhetoric of ‘a partnership of equals’. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a particularly sensitive topic. Indeed, another notable absence was that of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was not invited as there is an ICC arrest warrant against him. Many African states, including the 34 that are party to the ICC, find that heads of states should be immune from indictment by the ICC. 

The question of immunity of heads of state became even more important when Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto were sworn in as President and Vice-President of Kenya in 2013. A few years earlier, the ICC had summoned Kenyatta and Ruto, together with four others, in relation to the violence that took place after the December 2007 elections in Kenya. In September 2013, the AU held an extra-ordinary summit on the ICC, during which it expressed itself against charges against serving AU Heads of State. After the summit, the AU sent a delegation to New York to convince the members of the UN Security Council to defer the Kenyan cases. The fact that the European members of the Security Council (UK, France, Luxembourg) did not support this bid, is seen by some African countries as a lack of solidarity. 

The discussion on the ICC reflects a wider criticism that the EU’s sanctions policy is characterised by double standards. There is a widespread belief in Africa that the ICC particularly targets Africans, given that all the cases that are currently investigated are African. The fact that Egypt was invited to the 2014 summit, despite being suspended from the AU, is another example of double standards. While the EU may insist that it is an EU-Africa rather than an EU-AU summit, it is remarkable that suspended AU member Guinea-Bissau is not on the list of attendants, while interim president Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic was invited to a special meeting on the crisis in her country.

Furthermore, the issue of gay rights may prove to be a thorny issue in the future. The recent adoption of legislation instituting long-term imprisonments for homosexuality in Uganda, Nigeria and Ethiopia has provoked strong protest in Europe. EU member states Denmark and the Netherlands have already suspended aid in Uganda as a reaction to the anti-gay legislation, while the EU is reconsidering its own aid package in this country. In this light, African states fear additional conditionalities in support of gay rights. This fear may not be completely ungrounded: at the occasion of a joint meeting with MPs from the European and Pan-African Parliament, President of the European Parliament Martin Shulz called to cut aid to countries with anti-gay laws. Shulz is widely tipped to become the next president of the European Commission.

These outstanding issues are more symptomatic of a donor-recipient relationship than of a partnership based on shared values. When they pop up in discussions on the strategy, the participants have to acknowledge that ‘we do not agree on everything’. It is however crucial that the EU and Africa engage in an open and transparent dialogue, including on sensitive issues like the ICC and gay rights. 


Karen Del Biondo is Postdoctoral fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin
This is a guest post; views may not represent that of ECDPM
Photo Courtesy of The Council of the European Union

The best of ECDPM's Africa-Eu videos in one playlist

Watch the best of ECDPM's videos on Africa-EU relations in the run up to the 2014 Brussels summit on one playlist.

Our playlist includes contributions from:
  • Dr René Kouassi, Director of Economic Affairs at the African Union Commission
  • Gary Quince, Head of the EU Delegation to the African Union
  • Joseph Chielngi, Co-Chairperson of the Africa-EU Civil Society Joint Steering Committee 
Our playlist also includes:
  • ECDPM's guide to EU decision making on Africa
  • The opening session of the Friday's of the Commission 'Making Africa-EU Relations Future Proof' co-hosted by ECDPM and the African Union Commission Department of Economic Affairs.