European Union - African Union relations: Articles

The African Union has more than a full plate of peace and security issues before it in the coming year. This briefing highlights eight conflict situations where its efforts can be of greatest help.

This article undertakes a comprehensive assessment of the African Union (AU)'s Agenda 2063 Aspiration 4: A peaceful and secure Africa and the progress made at continental level towards it. Aspiration 4 is informed by the AU's acknowledgment that the scourge of conflict on the continent plays a significant role in hampering socioeconomic development. Against this background, the article examines the role played by the AU and its regional economic communities (RECs) in response to armed conflict on the continent, as exemplified by the AU and Southern African Development Community (SADC) response to the Cabo Delgado conflict in northern Mozambique.

L’Union africaine célébrera ses vingt ans cette année, l’occasion de faire le bilan de ses réalisations et de redynamiser son action en faveur de la paix et de la sécurité sur le continent. Dans ce briefing, Crisis Group identifie huit conflits qui demandent une attention urgente de l’organisation.

The African Union (AU) will mark its 20th anniversary in 2022, and as pressure to perform better increases, the heads of state summit from 5-6 February will be crucial. Following the election of two commissioners in October 2021, the new AU Commission is now fully operational and must show progress on implementing long-running reforms.

Africa enters 2022 with a long and urgent to-do list. Experts outline key political, economic, security and health issues the continent must contend with as it maps its COVID-19 recovery and post-pandemic reality.

L’année 2020 devait être une année charnière pour (re)formuler la stratégie africaine de l’Europe. L’Allemagne et la France s’étaient engagées à renforcer les relations entre les deux continents. Basé sur une approche historique, ce papier propose d’analyser les évolutions des politiques africaines de Paris et de Berlin et leur éventuel impact sur une stratégie africaine de l’UE. ​

Si les migrations en provenance d’Afrique constituent la priorité des politiques européennes de contrôle des frontières extérieures de l’Union européenne (UE), les dynamiques migratoires africaines sont pourtant avant tout régionales.

In much of Africa, growth is being driven by “green energy innovation ecosystems”, which combine telecoms, digital platforms, solar power, and the internet of things. European companies and states risk losing out on business opportunities and political influence if they fail to integrate their services and infrastructure into these emerging ecosystems. China and other economic and geopolitical rivals will become African states’ main partner if Europeans stand aside from this key growth trajectory.

L’élection de la Commission à la tête de l’Union africaine (UA) les 6 et 7 février 2021 a représenté une étape importante dans la mise en place de sa réforme. La Commission est le véritable gouvernement de l’institution mettant en musique, sous l’impulsion des chefs d’État réunis une fois par an lors de la Conférence, les objectifs de l’organisation panafricaine. Le président réélu de la Commission, le Tchadien Moussa Faki, a la lourde tâche de réaliser cette réforme impulsée par l’ancien président de l’UA, le président rwandais Paul Kagamé, entre 2016 et 2018.

The European Union’s (EU) relations with the African continent are facing a distinct set of challenges. Contrary to the expectations of both African and European governments, the pending negotiations between the partners are now being put to the test like never before. The global spread of Covid-19 has led to economic crises throughout the world – and the African continent is no exception. International organisations, the EU, and African institutions alike consider the economic and health crisis to be more serious than the 2008/2009 global financial crisis.

The EU and Africa aim to put their cooperation on a new footing. Thus, the EU Commission proposed in March 2020 close future relations based on five partnerships: 1) for green transition and energy access; 2) for digital transformation; 3) for sustainable growth and jobs; 4) for peace and governance; and 5) on migration and mobility. The present study deals precisely with the third aspect, i.e. economic growth and employment.

Seeks to investigate the relevance of the call for more climate action in terms of what further climate priorities and strategies are required in the context of the existing climate change partnership between Africa and the European Union (EU). It relies on liberal institutionalism as its theoretical framework and data from a range of purposely selected secondary sources as reference points. Beyond arguing the case for more climate action to further strengthening the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), it emphasizes the need to align the required further climate action with the mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN transformative initiatives on the global climate action.

Peace and security (P&S) is a key component of the relations between the African Union and the European Union, and is likely to continue to play a central role in the future. Yet, some significant changes are possible in the role played by the African Union due to the launch of the European Peace Fund. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to analyse the “state of the art” of AU–EU relations on peace and security and to consider its main trajectories.

The end of two decades during which the Cotonou Partnership Agreement was the overarching policy framework covering the three pillars of aid, trade and political cooperation offers an opportunity to assess the status of the AU–EU partnership. This paper provides an overview of AU–EU trade and development relations with a specific focus on the main structural inequalities and drivers, and suggestions for building a more equitable partnership, but also on promoting African post-COVID recovery.

This policy brief addresses the state and perspectives of African Union–European Union (AU–EU) cooperation in the run-up to the sixth AU–EU Summit, which has now been earmarked for February 2022. It provides a broad overview of the framework and content of AU–EU institutional relations, as well as of common and contested fields of cooperation. The core of the analysis is dedicated to revealing the main structural asymmetries preventing cooperation from achieving a partnership of equals.

Facing internal and external crises, the European Union and the African Union have revitalized their interregional cooperation. This article theorizes interregional norm dynamics and explores how, in times of crises, gender equality norms are shaped in interregional relations between the African Union and the European Union.

In addition to the strategies of individual countries, a regional approach has been adopted in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa, which has largely helped to mitigate its effects. Under the auspices of the African Union, the Africa Centres for Disease Control has taken the lead in responding to the pandemic on the continent.

The Covid-19 crisis has created a dire need for the active facilitation of sustainable investment to promote an inclusive, gender-sensitive and green recovery. The partnership between the EU and the African Union (AU), and their respective member states, can provide a strategic and institutional framework for stimulating sustainable investment in a collective manner.

New financial structures will soon allow the EU to fund African military operations – including the supply of lethal weaponry – directly, instead of through the African Union. To avoid aggravating conflicts, this brief suggests that Brussels should undertake robust risk assessments, constantly monitor its assistance, insist that recipient countries subordinate military efforts to political strategies and preserve African Union oversight.

Conventional narratives suggest that the African Union Commission (AUC), like most international public administrations and international organisations (IOs) housed in the less materially endowed regions of the world, exercises no meaningful agency on international issues. This article however seeks to show that the AUC is neither a glorified messenger and docile follower of orders of governments nor is it an empty vessel that timidly goes where the wind of governments blows.

The institutional reforms of the African Union (AU) have gained significant prominence in recent years within the framework of promoting regional integration and strengthening the African collective action. Africa has witnessed significant changes over the past two decades on several fronts, which has made reforming the AU more urgent than ever before. The main attention of the institutional reform is its focus on key priorities with continental scope, realign AU institutions to deliver against those priorities, manage the AU efficiently at both political and operational levels and finance the AU ourselves and sustainably.

A proposal to use UN assessed contributions as a means of providing sustainable and predictable financing for African Union (AU) peace support operations is perhaps the most contentious issue facing the two institutions. Since its founding in 2002, the AU has assumed greater responsibility for maintaining peace and security in Africa, including through peace support operations.

This study finds that Africa’s vast resources and wealth of experts; its innovative local industries and rapid response potential; its active community and grassroots; its committed private sector; the work of the African Union; the continent’s geopolitical and economic position, and its many lessons position it to be a strong player in a post-COVID world.

L’Union européenne (UE) et l’Union africaine (UA) ont toutes deux connu au cours des quinze dernières années des changements profonds dans leurs positionnements et activités dans le domaine de la sécurité et de la gestion des crises.

The prevailing argument shows that the African Union has initiated several legislations and protocols to contain terrorism on the continent, but the Union lacks the capacity to enforce legislations. Relying on the cost–benefit theoretical explication, this paper concludes that member states of the East African Community prefer to partner with external organisations in counterterrorism programmes which result in conflicting cross-border rules and challenges in countering violent extremism in Africa.

Si l'UE et l'Afrique divergent sur de nombreux points, construire ensemble un projet prospère, pacifique et durable est une exigence malgré une histoire partagée à la fois complexe et douloureuse. Peut-on envisager un nouveau partenariat UE-Afrique ? C'est à cette interrogation majeure que ce numéro thématique de L'Europe en formation essaie de répondre.

Africa Spectrum is published by the GIGA Institute for African Affairs (IAA) in Hamburg since 1966. It is a peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to original research on the politics, societies, and economics of sub-Saharan Africa.

Afrique contemporaine est une revue scientifique pluridisciplinaire à comité de lecture dédiée à l’étude des dynamiques africaines, au travers d’articles originaux privilégiant un fort ancrage de terrain. Elle se positionne comme une plateforme d’échanges et de débats, et s’adresse aux acteurs et observateurs des dynamiques africaines : chercheurs, société civile, gouvernements, organisations internationales, médias.

African Journals OnLine (AJOL) is the world's largest and preeminent platform of African-published scholarly journals. Allowing easy access to academic abstracts from across the continent. It contains a list of Open Access journals on various subjects.