The European Union and Africa: Old Partners in a Changing World

Abstract

EU-Africa relations represent, in many respects, a unique experiment in international relations. Over the past 50 years, the two partners have intensely engaged each other and developed a dense and complex web of institutional, economic, political, social, and cultural ties. This unique experiment in interregionalism has however, for the most part, not been studied in its totality. Most scholarly endeavors tend to approach the relationship from the perspective of a single issue, for example, trade, development cooperation, and human rights. Deeply rooted in history, the relationship between the EU and Africa has gradually evolved from fragmented and “often painful colonial arrangements” into a comprehensive, multilayered, and multifunctional “strategic partnership” that seeks not only to address issues of common interest but also to allow the EU and Africa to “face with confidence the demands of our globalizing world.”1 The adoption of a Joint Africa-EU Strategy by the second EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon in December 2007 attests to this changing partnership and its centrality in the relationship between Africa and the EU.KeywordsEUROPEAN UnionEuropean Economic CommunityStrategic PartnershipDevelopment CooperationSouthern African Development CommunityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.