The European Union (EU) is a key partner for African regional organizations and a major promoter of economic and political integration in the region. Several studies have interpreted the EU's role in Africa as either a self-interested hegemonic actor or as a value oriented normative power. In this volume, Daniela Sicurelli challenges these views by taking a closer look at Europe's policies towards Sub-Saharan Africa in the area of peacekeeping, trade and development, and environmental protection. Using fresh empirical evidence, including interviews with both European and African officials, she argues that the EU is far from becoming a unitary player in Africa. Lacking a clear strategy and coherent normative framework, the EU should be considered a multi-level actor, where national and supranational institutions have different interests and push forward contrasting views of what role Europe should play in Africa. The ability of single institutions to frame an issue as requiring either intergovernmental or supranational procedures appears crucial for shaping the content of European Africa policies. An original contribution to the growing literature on the EU as an international actor, this book is extremely useful to scholars, researchers and policy-makers demanding critical work in the field of EU-Africa policy.

The European Union in Africa: Incoherent policies, asymmetrical partnership, declining relevance? provides a comprehensive analysis of EU-Africa relations since the beginning of the twenty-first century and includes contributions from leading experts in the field of EU external relations. It seeks to explain how the relationship evolved through discussion of a number of different policies and agreements, ranging from established areas such as aid, agriculture, trade and security, to new areas such as migration, climate change, energy and social policies. This book successfully challenges a number of widely-held assumptions on the role of the EU in Africa, and at the same time sheds light on the role and identity of the EU in the international arena. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in the field of EU external relations as well as practitioners of international development.

How Europe can hit the “reset” button after years of failed responses to North African turmoil The ongoing upheaval in North Africa has presented many challenges to Europe, which previously had been comfortable with the status quo of authoritarian leadership in much of the region. Now in its ninth year, the turmoil has forced European leaders to rethink their approaches to the region, based on the now-obvious reality that the brief hopes of early 2011 for the spread of democracy and economic progress will not be fulfilled anytime soon. In this book, experts from Europe, the United States, and the Middle East discuss what has happened since the so-called “Arab Spring” emerged and how those often-bewildering events have affected both North Africa and the European states across the Mediterranean. The book is based on papers presented at a March 2018 conference sponsored by the South Mediterranean Regional Program of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Chapters focus on events in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia—and offer ideas for how the European Union can adopt fresh approaches to the region, moving beyond its frequently uncertain and shifting responses of recent years.

This book offers a holistic and comprehensive assessment of the European Union's (EU) relations with Africa focusing on their historical, political, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions. In the high imperial period from the nineteenth century, some in Europe advocated the idea of EurafriqueA" - a formula for putting Africa's resources at the disposal of Europe's industries. After tracing Europe's historical attempts to remodel relations following African independence from the 1960s and Europe's own quest for unity, the book examines the current strategic dimensions of the relationship. Most especially, contributors examine the place of Africa in the EU's need for global partnerships. Key topics discussed include trade and investment, security and governance, migration and identity, and the historical legacy on the current relationship. The volume closely analyses the key European players in Africa - France, Britain, Portugal, and the Nordics - within the context of the EU. Finally, it examines Europe's controversial immigration policies and complex relations with the Maghreb and Mediterranean, as well as perceptions of past and current European identity. The study concludes that Africa and Europe still appear not to have escaped fully the burdens of history, and examines the feasibility of elaborating and practising, in future, an Afro-EuropaA": a new relationship defined by genuine equality, partnership, and mutual self-interest between both continents-and one that finally sheds the baggage of the EurafriqueA" past.

South Africa's role and status in world politics have changed significantly over the last four decades. In the latter half of the previous century it was banished into international isolation; then, after 1994, it was exalted as a model for peaceful transition and democracy.

This book presents an examination of one of the first joint actions undertaken by the European Union under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) provisions of Maastricht. The case-study of South Africa is particularly important as it straddles both the CFSP and the European Political Cooperation (EPC) periods and thus similarities and constraints in policy-making and implementation can be made. The EC/EU policy vis-a-vis South Africa is traced from 1977 through to the April 1994 South African elections. The earlier policy period of sanctions and positive measures are compared with the 1990s policies of election observation, the normalization of bilateral relations and development policy. General conclusions about the effectiveness and institutional aspects of joint actions are drawn and recommendations for improved CFSP joint actions proposed. Vice-President of the Commission, Sir Leon Brittan, has contributed a foreword to this volume.

The European Union is the world's largest donor of developmental aid, with a strong interest in Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the high ambitions of the European policies are not matched by the strategies or activities to reach the desired goals.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - Topic: Development Politics, grade: 1,0, University of Economics, Prague (Faculty of International Relations), course: Africa in International Relations, language: English, abstract: In the sense of most people poverty, underdevelopment and worse living conditions are directly connected to the continent of Africa and the people living there. Furthermore Africa has been exploited by other nations and distressed by internal military and non-military conflicts. This is why most nations all over the world have identified the need of help, although it is sometimes done for their own purpose. This paper will focus on the EU development strategy and policy for the African continent. First of all I will explain the legal foundation and principles of the Union’s Africa strategy. Secondly I’ll try to identify the most important impacts on the changing relationship between Africa and the EU since the 1950s. This will be followed by a detailed insight into the history of common European Development Policy from the times of the EEC to the Treaty of Cotonou. After that I want to focus on the actual relationship, especially the Lisbon Declaration and the joint strategy for Africa. Last but not least there will be a short evaluation if this strategy is or even could be successful. In the end I will sum up my results and connect them to my own opinion.

The adoption of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) in 2007 was a watershed moment in Africa-EU relations, one that sought to 'reinvent' a historical relationship to meet the challenges posed by complex interdependencies, expanding globalization, and growing competition, all framed by the gradual dislocation of the West as the epicenter of world politics. Five years into its implementation, this book offers a thorough and first comprehensive investigation of the JAES, the most advanced form of interregionalism seen to date.