Assessing 25 Years of Partnership between the AU and EU: No More Business as Usual

Megatrends Afrika: Dear Mr Kane, thank you for taking the time to respond to our questions. To begin, we would like to know how you evaluate the current condition of the Africa–Europe partnership.

Ibrahima Kane: The relation can definitely improve. Africa and Europe have had very solid relations for at least two or three centuries, if you consider slavery, colonization and more. The relationship has evolved, of course, over the years, and especially in recent years – since Covid-19 – there has been a big shift. African countries want more balance in the relationship – to be seen more as an actor in the relationship than as a recipient of European aid. Up to now, the “software” – if I can use that kind of image – in Europe has not been updated. Despite saying “less aid, more trade”, Europeans continue to behave like those who were the colonizers of Africa. And I think in Africa, that situation is creating more anger. Moreover, we learnt a lesson from Covid-19 when African countries were asking for solidarity, for help, but there was no solidarity and no help. Everybody was thinking about their own people, their own continent. That formed the basis of the new positions being taken by African countries. Now people are putting forward African interests very strongly, and consequently the margins for negotiation are becoming narrower. And that is not good for both sides. So that’s the relationship: It’s very tense and very difficult.

Megatrends Afrika: Regarding the processes and the “how”, which changes do you believe are needed in the partnership between Africa and Europe?

The EU used to be helpful for African countries for negotiation with the rest of the world: negotiations with the World Bank, with the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and for all the changes needed to make the international structure of finance institutions more equitable and more favourable for the African continent. That’s why they used to be more accommodating with Europeans. But now the continent has joined the G20, which is a place for key negotiations on economic and development issues, and where it is getting the support of the Global South and the BRICS. Therefore, they now have more tools to be part of the discussion at the global level than they had in the past, and that is affecting their relationship with Europe. The Europeans need to understand that the world has changed. 

If Europe really wants to move from aid to trade with Africa, the process and the content of the relationship need to be discussed. Then the summit will be just a moment to endorse all the topics negotiated and a moment to decide what’s next. But when you look at the past, there were not a lot of negotiations. Rather, the EU says, “We have this new project and this is the amount of money that we are dedicating to it”, but the decision on how the money will be spent was in the hands of the Europeans. But discussing how to put all these projects into practice requires a lot of conversation. Up until now, those conversations are not happening. Or even when they happen, they’re happening with an asymmetrical relationship. 

This is also why the new emerging leaders in Africa – who are talking about sovereignty, even if it is not true that they want to defend their sovereignty – are perceived as the solution for how to proceed by the young people in Africa. For the young leaders, Africa needs to be bolder in its relationship with the rest of the world, with Europeans, in particular. According to them, the continent should not accept projects that they want to impose on us. This explains, in West Africa, the popularity of military regimes who forced the former colonial ruler, France, to close its military barracks, and in few cases, managed to reduce their diplomatic relationship to the strict minimum. 

These are the problems that you need to take into consideration now in Africa. When we talk now about the relationship between Europe and Africa, we have to realize that it’s no longer business as usual. 

Megatrends Afrika: Europe has long been perceived as “overpromising and underdelivering”. How do you see the EU as a partner to Africa regarding credibility?

Ibrahima Kane:  I have the feeling that, despite all these problems, Europe is still a credible partner of and biggest investor in the continent. That said, the time is in establishing a new type of relationship with African countries based on mutual respect and support. From this perspective, African European trade could be an interesting area for experimenting with this new approach in the relationship between the two continents. Africa now, intends to process its mineral resources on its own soil, prioritize intra-African trade, and defend its economic interests on the international market, while Europe, due to its difficult relations with its main international partner, the United States of America, is considering making the African market an important destination for its manufactured goods.  So, if Europe changes the way it was operating in the past, it will help to create that big market in providing African countries with the investments they need now. This could be investment in digitalization, energy, health, and education. And that’s why I was saying that I’m optimistic, as long as the Europeans are willing to really move in the right direction.

Megatrends Afrika: What opportunities do you see for closer cooperation between the AU and EU, and which are African priorities?

Ibrahima Kane: There are many, but trade seems to me the first opportunity. The AfCFTA [African Continental Free Trade Area] is taking form and will improve internal trade between African countries. It will also enhance local production. As I mentioned above, African countries want to start processing locally the minerals that they used to export. And that needs a lot of energy. In that regard, the partnership with Europe can be very useful – to produce more energy from solar and wind, and less from gas and oil. Trade will also be easier if we improve our infrastructures and have good roads and railways across the continent. Europe can also play an important role in that regard. 

The second priority that I’m seeing now is digitalization. It is not only needed to make our administration more efficient and delivering services more effectively. But it’s also needed for our security. Right now, the UN is encouraging African states to accelerate the process of digitalization for different services. But digitalization cannot be another process of recolonization. That’s why joint ventures are needed to avoid African countries to depend again on the West. Here, the cooperation with China is an example to follow. 

The third African priority is the environment. Today, the continent most affected by climate change is Africa, although we are hardly producing any emissions. We are just producing 5 per cent of what creates this climate problem. Europe is really advanced in terms of not only normative issues, but also systems that help to deal with the effects of climate change. In Africa, climate change has a different dimension: It affects the islands, it affects the coastal countries, it affects the Sahel countries. The current Sahel crisis is partly rooted in climate change. And it also affects the forests, which are something crucial not only for Africa but for the rest of the world. 

Therefore, we have many reasons to work together with the Europeans on those issues, to have Europe on our side when we will be discussing climate goals for the COP 30. On these three issues, African countries are keen to have good conversations with Europeans.

Megatrends Afrika: The EU’s 10 commitments from the last AU–EU Summit also cover migration and labour mobility. Would you say that those topics are also among the African priorities regarding the negotiations?

Ibrahima Kane: They could be. But in that regard Europe seems divided as far as migration is concerned. The southern part of Europe – Portugal, Spain, even France and Italy – that is facing very serious shortages in terms of human resources, is more open to the mobility of workers, while the northern part- Hungary, Denmark and Sweden- has a different position on migration. In Africa, the common position on migration issues has been adopted years ago, and it has not drastically changed, despite the fact that a country like Sudan, which was playing an important role in that framework, has now collapsed, leading to new challenges. In addition, the statistics on mobility on the continent show us that 80 per cent of Africans that are travelling do so in Africa. The paranoia about migration, used as a political tool in Europe between politicians, is affecting the mobility of Africans even on their continent. It is important to underscore that African migrants only make up 3 per cent of all migrants in Europe. If the economic, education and health conditions are better on the continent, they would significantly impact mobility towards Europe. African countries want to discuss the conditions under which their citizens can still travel safely to Europe and get decent jobs as the securitization of migration currently implemented by the EU has shown its limitations.

Megatrends Afrika: Where do you see problems and challenges in the Africa–Europe partnership, especially since the last AU–EU Summit in 2022?

Ibrahima Kane: The tools that the Europeans were using in the past, such as respect for human rights and democracy, accountability, etc. to force African countries to accept their agenda for the continent is no longer working. Africans are, not only, contesting the new European approach to development, but they are also saying that Europe no longer has the moral authority to impose anything on the rest of the world after what happened in Palestine, what happened in Gaza, and the way they treated Africans who were living in Ukraine after the Russian invasion of that country. 

Furthermore, the fact that Europe is no longer supporting the continent in its fight against terrorism and is remaining silent on the multiple crises it is currently facing (in the DRC, Sudan and the Sahel), has led to open criticism of its institutions by African institutions, governments and civil society organizations. For some of us who are human rights activists, the situation is even worse in the sense that in the past, we used to call on European countries, every time human rights, rule of law and democracy were attacked, to stop their economic relations with countries and to apply individual sanctions on some political leaders. That cannot be done now. Today, we heard 700 people so far have been killed in the post-electoral protests in Tanzania. I tried to find in the media any European voice regarding this, but I could not find any. South Africa took the genocide happening in Palestine to the International Court of Justice, without the support of the Europeans. 

African countries now understand that, in a multipolar world, they must first rely on themselves before relying on any partnership. Therefore, the biggest challenge for Africans is to convince the European Union that the time has come to adopt a new approach in their cooperation, where Africans and Europeans will make an effort to comprehend, understand, and respect each other’s perspectives.

 

Ibrahima Kane is a Senegalese lawyer and has worked on issues regarding the African Union for the last 20 years. His vast experience includes both working with EU institutions on human rights and working with the Open Society Foundation, where he was director of advocacy with the African Union for 15 years.

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