A Triumph of Realism over Idealism? Cooperation Between the European Union and Africa

Abstract

Relations between the European Union and Africa pre‐date the origins of the EU itself. With the Lomé Convention of 1975, relations between the two regions were set on a more solid footing with a highly institutionalised framework of cooperation, hailed at the time as a partnership of equals. The successor to the Lomé Convention, the Cotonou Agreement, is now also portrayed as an innovative form of interregional cooperation, a form of hybrid interregionalism between the formal regional grouping of the European Union and a ‘constructed’ region, comprising the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries. This article suggests that the EU approach to interregionalism is itself evolving, and the cooperation with the ACP group does not reflect any sustained commitment on the part of the European Union to patterns of cooperation and partnerships built up in the past.

Key Words:

• European Union
• ACP
• Cotonou Agreement
• Economic Partnership Agreements
• Africa
• interregionalism

Notes

1. For further detail on the historical development of EU–Africa institutionalised cooperation, see Lister (1997), and Mahler (1994).

2. See Ojo (1996) for a review of the changing relationship between the two regions.

3. The problems that many African countries experienced in the early phase of independence are well documented and, for good accounts, see Arrighi (2002); Faria (2004); Van den Walle (2001).

4. According to Kunibert Raffer (2001), the term partnership was mentioned 52 times in 100 Articles, and 9 times in the annexes.

5. This is also the view expressed in Hurt (2003).

6. Human rights, democracy and the rule of law were inserted as ‘essential elements’ of the Cotonou agreement, effectively treating these as conditions that must be observed under international law. Violation of these conditions would open the way to possible remedies, in accordance with international law, and having due regard to the nature of the violation. Under international law, any treaty party can suspend treaties if the partner commits a ‘material breach of the treaty’ — this is provided for under the Vienna Convention of 1969.

7. For comment on the prospects of NEPAD, see Chabal (2002), and De Waal (2002).

8. See Commission of the African Union Strategic Plan 2004 1, 10.

9. There have already been cases of actions resulting from violations of these ‘essential elements’ — human rights, democracy, and the rule of law — when the EU adopted measures against Zimbabwe, Haiti, Fiji and Ivory Coast.

10. In fact, the democracy requirement goes back even further than the current phase of enlargement. In 1962, the European Parliament produced the Birkelbach Report which laid down the political conditions to be fulfilled by an applicant country. The existence of a democratic government was established as a precondition for membership and countries seeking to join the EC were required to recognize the principles for membership established by the Council of Europe: the rule of law, democracy, and respect for human rights and liberties. It was around this time, also, that Spain submitted an application for association status with the EC, although still under the non–democratic Franco rule.

11. For discussion of EU involvement in conflict management and peace keeping in Africa, see Faria (2004), and Wilken (2002).

12. For a critique of the limitations inherent in contemporary perspectives on development, see CIDSE (2003); Maxwell & Christiansen (2002); Schuurman (2000); Van der Hoeven (2000).

13. The EPAs were expected to be compatible with WTO rules on trade liberalisation, extending liberalisation on trade between the EU and the African countries to cover substantially all products, and dropping the non–reciprocal nature of previous agreements whereby ACP countries had free access to the European markets without being required to extend the same (reciprocal) access to the European producers.