Following the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) has sought to take advantage of its multilateral relations, including with Africa. The EU has tried to win as many votes as possible out of the continent’s 54 votes – almost a third of the 193 members of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly – in order to sanction Moscow’s actions in the most important world diplomatic forum.

The EU accounts for 36% of Africa’s foreign trade and is the continent’s largest investor with €261 billion. Brussels also contributed €2.7 billion (90% of the total) to the African Union (AU) Africa Peace Facility between 2004 and 2019. Given the escalation of sanctions against Moscow, EU countries could be forced to turn to African countries like Algeria, Nigeria. , Egypt, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ghana to replace Russia’s supply of 40% of their gas supplies.

THE BRUSSELS SUMMIT

The Russian intervention in Ukraine came shortly after the sixth joint EU-AU summit was held in Brussels three weeks earlier. Entitled “Europe and Africa: a common vision for 2030”, the meeting was intended to be more of an interactive dialogue, with African and European leaders divided into seven round tables. Forty African leaders and 27 European leaders were present.

They agreed to prioritize the 2018 AU-EU Memorandum of Understanding on Peace, Security and Governance, which sought to address the root causes of conflict; fight instability and terrorism; strengthen African-led peace operations; and implement the women, peace and security agenda.

When it comes to climate change, the rich world’s $100 billion annual commitment to poorer countries between 2020 and 2025 remains unfulfilled. Migration has become a major concern for the European side – especially Hungary, Poland and Greece – with 72,425 African migrants entering the EU in 2021. African governments, on the other hand, view migrants as a vital source of remittances and therefore opposed the forced return of migrants from Europe. The two sides therefore covered up their differences at the Brussels summit, reiterating the usual commitments to prevent irregular migration; strengthen border management; improve return, readmission and reintegration; end human trafficking and smuggling; and create channels for legal migration.

At the Brussels summit, the EU announced a €150 billion Africa-Europe investment program to support the business, health and education sectors in particular. A specific Erasmus Plus program will promote collaboration between African and European universities. Brussels has made no binding commitments on debt cancellation for African countries, beyond supporting debt suspension and International Monetary Fund (IMF) special drawing rights, on which African leaders have asked for $100 billion to be set aside for the continent.

The EU’s proposed $171 billion Global Gateway investment program aims to support infrastructure, transport and energy (600 million Africans without access to electricity) and is clearly designed to to counter China’s global Belt and Road initiative. The Brussels summit further pledged to ensure “fair and equitable” access to COVID-19 vaccines, with only 10% of Africans vaccinated, compared to 62% of Europeans. The EU reaffirmed its commitment to make 450 million doses of vaccines available to African countries by June 2022 at a cost of €425 million. The issue has caused much consternation across Africa, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa accusing Europeans of practicing “vaccine apartheid”. The EU’s failure to back African calls for a waiver on vaccine patents has also sparked tensions.

FROM CAIRO TO TRIPOLI

Prior to the recent Brussels summit, five other Africa-EU meetings had taken place. It is necessary to retrace this history briefly to understand the news. The first intercontinental summit took place in Cairo in April 2000 between the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the EU. This process eventually resulted in the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) in December 2007, which was adopted at a second Africa-EU Summit in Lisbon. The strategy aimed to make the partnership more equal.

Its 2008-2010 action plan identified eight priority areas: peace and security; democratic governance and human rights; migration, mobility and employment; regional integration, trade and infrastructure; the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); climate change; energy; and science, information society and space. The third Africa-EU Summit was held in Tripoli in November 2010, during which the 2011-2013 Action Plan was adopted, strengthening cooperation in the same eight priority areas as the first Lisbon Action Plan.

FROM BRUSSELS TO ABIDJAN

The fourth Africa-EU Summit was held in Brussels in April 2014 under the central theme “Peace, Prosperity and Peoples”. The meeting adopted the 2014-2017 roadmap, highlighting five priority areas: peace and security; democracy, “good governance” and human rights; Human Development; sustainable and inclusive development, growth and continental integration; and global and emerging issues.

The fifth summit was held in the Ivorian city of Abidjan in November 2017 under the overarching theme “Investing in youth for a sustainable future”, amid growing concern among European leaders about irregular African migration to across the Mediterranean. With 375 million young Africans expected to reach working age by 2035 and 60% of Africa’s population under the age of 25, EU leaders were eager to find ways to keep these young people at home. .

Four strategic axes have been identified in Abidjan: mobility and migration; economic opportunities for young people; peace and security; and governance cooperation. But despite Brussels’ constant assertion and rhetoric about “equal partnership” and “coherence”, as well as its calls for the need to move away from a purely donor-recipient relationship, there were serious differences between both sides: African governments continued to emphasize aid and trade, while Europeans prioritized security and migration.

The multitude of Africa-EU Priority Action Plans has also been criticized for lacking concrete implementation plans and measurable mechanisms to effectively track progress. In addition, calls have been made to channel funding for operational costs to capacity building projects.

At the recent EU-AU summit in Brussels, both sides reiterated their commitment to a rules-based international order centered on the UN. In a recent vote at the UN General Assembly, only half of African members (27 out of 54) voted with the EU to sanction Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raising serious questions about the actual “strategy” of this partnership.

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a Senior Researcher at the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Send your comments to [email protected]