This commentary provides an overview of key takeaways and the aspects to keep in mind for the way forward after the first European Humanitarian Forum which took place in March 2022.
The 6th EU-AU summit, held in Brussels on 17-18 February 2022, marked an important milestone
in the relationship between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU). After almost a
year and a half of delay, the summit provided leaders of both European and African countries
an opportunity to negotiate on a series of key topics that will shape the future of their relations.
Additionally, the summit provided a further opening for the regional bodies and their member
states to move away from an asymmetrical top-down relationship to a more vertical partnership
in which both sides negotiate deals based on sound analysis, trust and mutual respect.
Our ETTG Coordinator Daniele Fattibene has published an IAI paper on how the Think20 (T20) can support the G20 Development Working Group (DWG) to boost the G20 legitimacy on development cooperation worldwide. The paper, that benefited from the review of ETTG members like Geert Laporte and Niels Keijzer, addresses strengths and weaknesses of the G20 DWG, providing policy recommendations on how the DWG and T20 can feed better into each other’s policy agendas, increasing their chances to influence other G20 tracks on crucial development issues such as development finance, food security or the global climate agenda.
On the 17th and 18th of February, the African Union and the European Union convened a Summit in Brussels and approved an “Africa-Europe Investment Package of EUR 150 billion to help build more diversified, inclusive, sustainable and resilient economies”. Is this Summit a turning point in the reciprocal relationship or is it a mere improvement of the usual kind of relations? To what extent is it an answer to strategic and concrete moves from other powers, namely China?
One year after COVID-19 vaccines were introduced, high-income countries are securing themselves the majority of the vaccines. The vaccine supplies of many low-income countries are not even sufficient to cover their most vulnerable population groups. While the vaccination rate for most high-income countries is above 70%, the rate for African nations currently stands at 11%.
Innovation for the energy transition is given a prominent role in the green recovery action plan for Africa and the European Union’s Green Deal, with both continents seeking the transformation of their economies to tackle both climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic impacts while improving wellbeing of the population. There are many points of overlap between the two continents’ official agendas. But there are also many open questions and potential tensions especially around: access to energy for sustainable and inclusive industrial development; maintaining competitive value chain; addressing trade barriers; promoting knowledge transfer while protecting intellectual property rights; using gas, and promoting hydrogen. If well-managed, innovation for the energy transition can act as catalyst for a shared prosperity for the two continents. This blogpost was written by the members of the Ukama Platform’s steering committee ahead of the European Union-Africa Union Summit.
This report is the outcome of a partnership initiative launched in 2021 by the European Think Tanks Group (ETTG) and the Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Our initiative seeks to advance Africa-Europe relations in the run up to the 6th EU-AU summit in
European Think Tanks Group (ETTG), the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) joined forces to analyse divergences and seek consensus between the AU and the EU on key issues in the partnership. Drawing on roundtable discussions with experts from Africa and Europe, the group produced a series of policy briefs with proposals to strengthen the partnership between Africa and the EU on green transformation and climate change; economic development and trade; and participatory governance, peace and security. The briefs draw on contributions from more than 70 leading African and European independent experts, knowledge centres and think tanks that contributed reflections and suggested concrete policy recommendations.
