EU-Africa Summit Series

On 17th and 18th of February, the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) met for the long-awaited summit. But since the event was planned back in 2020, the world has been ravaged by a pandemic that has stalled a decade of continuous growth and human capital improvement on the African continent.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Europe’s future wellbeing will depend more and more on the future wellbeing of its closest neighbour, Africa. So, can this summit still do what it originally set out to—and what it must set a course for— and reset the EU’s relationship with Africa as a “true partnership of equals”?

In this blog series, CGD colleagues present proposals on the joint priorities set out by the AU and the EU and offer commentary on whether a meaningful reconstruction of the relationships between the two continents is likely to materialise.

More from the Series

Blog Post
EU-Africa Relations: Delivering on Promises Past
and
Ovigwe Eguegu
February 14, 2022
Twenty-two years on from the first time Africa and the EU met in Cairo, little in the relationship has changed for the better. We argue here that the Africa-EU relationship does not need yet another reinvention. What it needs is for promises of summits-gone-by to be fulfilled.
Blog Post
An EU Tax on African Carbon – Assessing the Impact and Ways Forward
February 10, 2022
Climate and trade will be major issues at the sixth European Union (EU) – Africa Union (AU) summit on 17-18th February. One item on the agenda is the EU’s new proposal to apply a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) on imports.The proposal is designed to lower carbon emissions globally, but at ...
Blog Post
The EU, Africa, and SDRs: More Can Be Done
February 10, 2022
The EU-AU summit is an important moment where the European Union could announce an ambitious plan to recycle its Special Drawing Rights which our analysis shows there is plenty of room to do. While some EU countries have been at the forefront of advocating for recycling, as a group the EU membe...
Blog Post
The AU and the EU: Potential for a New Humanitarian Partnership
February 03, 2022
Humanitarian problems continue to grow across Africa. Conflict, climate change and COVID-19 are the main causes. This is a problem for Africa, but also for Africa’s friends and neighbours, including the European Union (EU). Humanitarian problems increasingly cross borders, with spill over effec...
Blog Post
Pressing the Reset Button on the Africa-Europe Relationship
February 01, 2022
Africa continues to be portrayed as a continent to be “aided” by the EU: a poor, fragile, violence-plagued and conflict-ridden continent. But there also exists a modern, striving and prospering Africa. In short, Africa has much to offer the EU. This summit is the ideal time for EU leaders to press t...
Blog Post
The EU Should Build Skills in Africa, Not Just Promote Mobility
January 26, 2022
The European Union's New Pact on Migration and Asylum, published in 2020, aimed to implement “Talent Partnerships” with African countries, to better link migration and skills development. Since then, much progress has been made, but there is still further to go. This blog outline...
Blog Post
Afro-European Partnerships in Health: Accelerating Better Efficiency of Health Spending
January 20, 2022
In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, many sub-Saharan African countries will face serious economic crises and shrinking public spending. If countries are unable to spend more, they need to spend better. Europe has leading expertise in building institutions for priority-setting in health, making it an...