Broadening the Debate on EU–Africa Relations

Towards Reciprocal Approaches

Frank Mattheis, John Kotsopoulos, Frank Mattheis, John Kotsopoulos

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000765366
• Edition: 1

Broadening the Debate on EU–Africa Relations is designed toexpand the scope of our understanding of the multi-layered relationship between the European Union and African political actors in order to shape both the academic and policy level discourse.

The focus on chapters highlighting an African perspective offers an opportunity to redress an imbalance in scholarship, and also represents an effort to reinvigorate the EU-Africa discourse. The contributors scrutinise hitherto underexplored areas, from agricultural cooperation to sanctions to scientific collaboration, as new insights linger in the less visible margins of the relationship. Jointly, they push in the same direction, to broaden the debate on how subjects are approached in a field of study that has one-sidedly focus on the intended actions of the EU. To that end, three dimensions represent the common thread of the book: how to recalibrate African and European perspectives, how to proceed on an assumption of mutual influence rather than unidirectionality, and how to highlight the intertwined nature of the different drivers of the relationship.

Recalibrating African and European perspectives by focusing on elements of reciprocity within the broad array of interregional interactions, Broadening the Debate on EU–Africa Relations will be of great interest to scholars of African Studies, African IR, and the EU. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of the South African Journal of International Affairs.

A contextualisation of EU–Africa relations: Trends and drivers from a reciprocal perspective

John Kotsopoulos

and Frank Mattheis

ABSTRACT

This article provides a contextualisation for the study of relations between the European Union and Africa. We identify seven major trends and drivers that have characterised the literature surrounding the relationship: colonial legacy, meanings of partnership, asymmetry, market liberalisation, politicisation, regional actorness and the changing global order. In the literature, these elements tend to be examined separately or in unidirectional perspectives. This article argues, however, that each element invariably influences both sides, although not necessarily in the same manner or to the same effect. In addition, most elements are intertwined and influence each other. These entanglements become visible when examining all seven elements as part of one context. This article suggests that proceeding on an assumption of mutual influence and highlighting the intertwined nature of the different elements constitutes a framework that serves this special issue’s efforts to recalibrate African and European perspectives in the scholarship.

Introduction

On 6 March 1957, Kwame Nkrumah declared the establishment of the Republic of Ghana, accelerating the decolonisation process of Sub-Saharan Africa. Less than three weeks later, on March 25, the foundational framework of what is now the European Union (EU) – the Treaty of Rome – was signed. The first shoots of African political independence and of European integration were not only decisive events that helped chart the future trajectories of the two continents. They were also intrinsically linked from the start and, despite seemingly divergent paths – African independence and European interdependence – provided the foundation for an entangled relationship between the two continents. The Treaty of Rome linked France and Belgium’s colonies to the then European Economic Community (EEC) by extending preferential terms of trade with all of the EEC member states. The treaty also created a development fund for African countries. This trade and aid model, framed under a developmental umbrella, served as the framework for relations between the EU and Africa into the 21^st century.

However, despite some forward-thinking efforts to improve the terms of trade – most prominently with the ‘non-reciprocal’ trade clause and export earning guarantees of the Lomé Convention – the relationship failed to break the long-standing power asymmetry between the two ‘partners’. The donor–client dynamic and perpetual dependency elicited criticisms from all sides. To many, the relationship between Europe (including the EU) and Africa was a neo-colonial and exploitative one. To others, failure was attributed to poor African governance, unable to take advantage of the preferential terms Europe offered.

This inherent tension has been reflected in the body of academic literature on relations between Africa and the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) on one side and the EU on the other. Some of the best-known works address these problematic dimensions of the relationship, including development and dependency, asymmetrical trade arrangements and the exercise of power.¹

Notable, however, is the persistence of asymmetry in EU–Africa relations even at the level of scholarship. There is a relative underrepresentation of studies from Africa. Some works by African scholars about EU–Africa relations have come from individuals based outside the continent, such as Babarinde² and Mangala.³ Some recent books on the subject have come from Africa, including works by Oloruntoba, and Adebajo and Whiteman.⁴ Still, the number of journal articles concerning Africa by Africa-based scholars is actually diminishing relative to articles from scholars based outside the continent.⁵

This underrepresentation of African perspectives reinforces the challenge that ‘rarely is the Global South seen as a source of theory and explanation for world historical events’.⁶ Providing space for varying interpretations of a changing global order seems obvious – but it is not always evident in the literature even in instances where a conscious effort has been made to address under-representation.⁷ Challenging Eurocentric assumptions of universalism⁸ and the preponderance of Western understandings of social science in Africa⁹ can lead to a richer dialogue between North and South. Similarly, ‘de-linking’ scholarship on EU–Africa relations from any one dominant perspective can circumvent this risk of provincialism.

This special issue of the South African Journal of International Affairs has been conceived as an opportunity to broaden the scope of our understanding of the relationship and ultimately shape some of the academic and policy level discourse. Following a scenario-building exercise and two author workshops in 2017 in Pretoria, the articles in this issue offer an opportunity to redress the imbalance in scholarship discussed above, and also represent an effort to reinvigorate the EU–Africa discourse. Scholars scrutinise hitherto underexplored areas, as new insights often linger in the less visible margins of the relationship.

Three of the featured articles in this special issue offer analysis on the broader dynamics of the relationship. Maurizio Carbone examines the current post-Cotonou discussions, tracing not only the territorial clashes between the ACP and African Union as each has sought jurisdiction to lead negotiations with the EU, but also areas where the parties have come together in order to best leverage African interests. Luckystar Miyandazi, Philomena Apiko, Tasnim Abderrahim and Faten Aggad-Clerx assess the contrasting understandings of common challenges facing the two partners, including the perception that solutions to issues such as migration are Europe-driven and seldom Africa-owned. Their paper provides insight into how a redefinition of the basis for cooperation between the EU and Africa could lead to better mutual understanding. Finally, Jo-Ansie Van Wyk looks at the triennial EU–Africa summits and argues that the EU’s pragmatic approach to tolerating the presence of leaders against whom it has imposed punitive measures undermines the efficacy of the EU’s overall sanctions agenda.

Another two articles explore the realm of scientific research, gauging the different ways in which the asymmetry of the relationship can affect specific issue areas. John Ouma-Mugabe, Petronella Chaminuka and Ana M P Melo delve into partnerships for enhancing agricultural transformation in Africa. By tracing the complex process of creating a governance mechanism for a multi-institutional association, they reveal a host of systemic issues that continue to complicate aspirations of equality between EU and African partners.

In a related contribution, Amr Radwan and Mahmoud Sakr address the question of how to optimise scientific collaboration between European and African scholars using a ‘brain circulation’ model. The authors address the challenge of harnessing the expertise of the African diaspora as well as avoiding the perpetual problem of brain drain to Europe. The article provides an insightful example on how a Euro-African issue that is usually framed as unidirectional can be understood in a reciprocal perspective.

Finally, the special issue is rounded out by two articles that contribute in novels ways to one of the historically key areas of focus in the relationship: security. Arnold Kammel takes a critical look at the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy in South Sudan. His work reveals the shortcomings of the EU’s ‘comprehensive approach’ to security sector reform and the extent of local ownership in the EUAVSEC mission. Jacob Lisafaku addresses the growing problem of cross border crime in East Africa, underlining the need for the East African Community and the EU to better integrate their policing support. This, he argues, is an opportunity to strengthen the interregional relationship between the two parties.

In order to provide cohesion to the thematic range of these papers, this introduction to the special issue of the South African Journal of International Affairs provides a contextualisation of EU–Africa relations by bridging the gap between two perspectives that, although complementary, are often studied in isolation. The first perspective is concerned with actors that induce or guide action between the two partners: the drivers of the relationship. The second perspective looks at a general direction or pattern in the relationship, which is often historically contingent and structurally rooted: the trends of the relationship.¹⁰ In order to bridge the gap, variables from both perspectives are assembled from an examination of key scholarship concerning the relationship over its 60-year history. This relationship rests on two main pillars. The first pillar is the entanglement between the ACP Group of States and the European Communities, which stems from the Treaty of Rome and is now guided by the Cotonou Agreement. Although the ACP excludes North Africa and includes former colonies outside of Africa, it constituted a central avenue for engagement between the two regions. The second pillar is the EU–Africa partnership under the framework of the Joint Africa–EU Strategy (JAES).

What started as a quasi-colonial endeavour between the embryonic European project and a cluster of francophone African countries in a narrow range of issue areas has become a comprehensive and multilayered partnerships between the European Union and the African continent. In between, the relationship went from a fleeting moment of parity in the nascent days of the New International Economic Order of the 1970s to a largely dependent, donor–client ‘associationism’¹¹ in subsequent decades.

The 21^st century ushered in a new era for the relationship, spurred by an economically rejuvenated and politically more self-confident African continent, but also by an evolving EU. This period also marked the development of a dedicated political relationship outside of the ACP structures in the form of the EU–Africa partnership. This dimension of EU–Africa relations deepened and broadened the scope of cooperation between the two sides. Still, there have been notable instances of disagreement and divergent interpretations of events, as evidenced in negotiations towards the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) between the EU and various regions of Africa. International controversies, such as the NATO-sponsored intervention in Libya in 2011, have also led to instances of distrust between Africans and Europeans.

In the remainder of the article, we aim to combine the relevant but fragmented literature streams on EU–Africa r...