A Litmus Test for the European Union? The EU’s Response to the Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1996 to the 2006 Elections

Abstract

Abstract. The present article analyses the European Union’s (EU’s) response to the multiple crises that have affected the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), taking as conventional starting and ending points the ‘Kivu war’ of 1996 and the 2006 elections. The article acknowledges the progress made by the EU, from a ‘virtual policy’ to a comprehensive approach toward the Congo crisis. However, it is also argued that the focus on ‘testing’ the new mechanisms for EU intervention bears the risk of overlooking their actual impact on the resolution of the crisis. A series of substantial weaknesses in the EU’s approach toward the DRC are identifi ed: the lack of coherence between development aid and crisis management; the diffi culty in addressing the transnational dimension of the crisis; and the focus on a few short-term objectives, such as elections, at the expenses of other crucial priorities.