10 February 2022
Brussels, Belgium
EU Chief unveils US$ 171bn investment plan for Africa
13 hours ago — The EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. ... to prepare for
a summit between the EU and the African Union on February 17, 2022.
The sixth African Union-European Union summit taking place in mid-February faces a fresh set of challenges as the world emerges from the Covid pandemic.
Traditionally held every three years, the previous summit was in 2017 in Côte d’Ivoire with this sixth summit being postponed due to the pandemic.
The two-day conference in Brussels from February 17 will move forward the debate on vaccine production and licensing, as well as exploring the deepening concerns over debt financing, infrastructure, migration, climate and security in the Sahel.
The African continent has been hard hit by the pandemic, with World Bank figures showing levels of debt in sub-Saharan low to middle-income countries reaching $702 billion in 2020, the highest in a decade.
Recent complaints by Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, of ‘vaccine apartheid’, along with similar grievances over Covid travel restrictions by other African leaders, have raised the temperature.
‘Covid is shaping the entire economic and political terrain of African states at the moment and there is a lot of bad blood,’ said Phil Clark, a professor of international politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
‘They are going to the summit with a fair amount of anger over how Europe has tackled Covid in Africa, and the EU will have their work cut out to move beyond that.’
Key to Europe’s agenda at the conference is Emmanuel Macron, the French president.
His government took over its six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union in January, and Macron himself has recently described EU relations with Africa as ‘a bit tired’.
Macron has long called for a reset or ‘overhaul’ of Europe’s partnership with Africa, announcing as far back as 2017 the end of what had become known as Françafrique, the French strategy of exerting military, political and commercial influence over its former colonies.
Today, Macron says the EU holds a more progressive outlook, instead seeking to establish ‘an ambitious and forward-looking alliance with Africa’ to foster ‘lasting prosperity.’
Last year, Europe announced its Global Gateway initiative, a strategy aimed at mobilizing up to €300 billion in investments around the world by 2027 and intended as a template for how Europe can help underpin a post-Covid recovery.
Europe is no longer the only stakeholder seeking influence and offering assistance to Africa, with China, Russia and others now major players too
Analysts are quick to observe that Europe is no longer the only stakeholder seeking influence and offering assistance to Africa, with China, Russia and others now major players too.
In recent years, for example, the African Union has held summits with the United States, Japan and Turkey, and there are plans for a conference with Russia at the end of 2022. Indeed, Moscow has a growing military footprint on the continent and has been the largest arms exporter to sub-Saharan Africa for the past four years.
Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, takes over as chair of the African Union just before the summit. Aside from Covid, he is expected to be critical of newly proposed European levies on gas exports from the continent.
Under its green energy agenda, the EU intends to place a carbon price on goods from non-EU nations in an effort to incentivize others to meet climate targets. Such a policy would represent a slap in the face for the African Union, which boasts vast reserves.
‘African states used to go to these summits and bite their tongue,’ said Prof Clark. ‘They didn’t pick fights, never brought up colonial histories or issues of reparations because Europe was the only game in town.
‘Now they are on the front foot with a much wider range of partners to choose from. They can say to the Europeans ‘we are not beholden to you any longer’.’
