Covid-19 and the Ukraine crisis: questioning the EU-Africa partnership of equals?

EU-Africa relations have hardly followed a linear path, but the events of the past two years – namely, Covid-19 and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine – seemingly put it under additional strain, allowing age-old grievances to come back in full force.

How can the European Union help developing countries address the socioeconomic impacts of the coronavirus crisis?

How can the European Union help developing countries address the socioeconomic impacts of the coronavirus crisis?

With the global economy going into a steep recession, developing countries are facing considerable financing shortfalls. Confronted with its most severe crisis since WWII, Europe needs to adopt a global perspective, as it cannot successfully address it in isolation. There is a moral imperative to help vulnerable people in distress and foster global solidarity to prevent catastrophic outcomes.

Europe-Africa relations after Corona

Europe-Africa relations after Corona

Twenty-twenty should have been the year of a fundamentally new Africa-Europe partnership, culminating in the sixth EU-AU summit in October in Brussels. Ursula von der Leyen, with a delegation of some 20 European commissioners in her wake, recently traveled to Addis Ababa for meetings with their African Union counterparts.

ETTG-UNDP Agenda Setting Event on Africa-EU relations

ETTG-UNDP Agenda Setting Event on Africa-EU relations Addis Ababa, 9-10 March 2020

On 9-10 March, ETTG and UNDP Africa organised an Agenda setting workshop in Addis Ababa, aimed at discussing issues that would need further analysis and reflections in the run up to the African Union- European Union (AU-EU) Summit, slated for October  2020 in Brussels. This event coincided with the launch of the EU Communication towards a Comprehensive Strategy with Africa.

MFF Workshop in Paris - Report

MFF Workshop in Paris – Report

The multi-annual financial framework report was based on a previous physical workshop event which took place in Paris on January 2020 and which brought together key players in France to agree on the conditions allowing to secure an ambitious budget dedicated to external action (“Heading 6”), particularly for the challenges of sustainable development in southern countries. The workshop and the report was also an opportunity to reflect on the role of the European Union’s external action policy.

Walking the talk: Leveraging the Green Deal to boost climate ambition through EU external action

Walking the talk: Leveraging the Green Deal to boost climate ambition through EU external action

As a follow up to the ETTG Policy Brief “Harnessing EU external cooperation to boost ambitious and coherent climate action” and one month before the ETTG roundtable event ’How to walk the Green Deal talk in EU external cooperation? Harnessing development cooperation to foster European climate leadership‘ (18th March in Brussels) the DIE researchers from Steffen Bauer and Gabriela Iacobuta are putting together the pieces of the “Green Deal” puzzle in our new ETTG blog.

EU Budget negotiations: the ‘frugal five’ and development policy

In December 2018, the ETTG published a paper comparing emerging Member State positions for the financing of the EU’s external action under its next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), covering the period 2021-2027. Its first observation that negotiations are moving slowly unfortunately still holds today.