REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN AFRICA UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE MORAL ECONOMY OF THE EU-AFRICA RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

Since the first moves of decolonization, African countries have not overcome the negative effects of colonization and are still facing underdevelopment, poverty gap, and low share in world trade The interregional relationship established with the European countries after independence does not seem to fulfill the development promises the European Economic Community made at the beginning. With many regional economic communities and conflicting trade rules, regional integration in Africa is so complex that it is described as a spaghetti bowl, in line with Bhagwati's definition. In addition, all the delays and discussions surrounding the Economic Partnership Agreements and the uncertainties regarding the future of the relations experienced before the signing of the post-Cotonou Agreement in April 2021, have also strained the interregional relationship with the EU. The article aims to discuss Africa's development and regional integration problems by blending the Moral Economy approach and the Historical Discourse Analysis method. This article discusses the current development and regional integration problems in Africa from a moral economy approach, combining it with Discourse Historical Analysis. It considers regional integration as one of the norms that the moral economy of the EU-Africa interregional relationship has been based on and explores its construction within this moral economy from a historical perspective. The main concern of this article is to investigate the construction of the regional integration norm in parallel to the development co-operation discourse and to explain its role in obscuring the impact of EU development co-operation on the current development and regional integration process in Africa, as well as the problems in the EU-Africa interregional relationship itself.