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Abstract
During the past 15 years, there has been a determination to strengthen the co-ordination, coherence and consistency between the different foreign policy instruments of the European Union. The aim has been to establish an effective foreign policy. The paper focuses on the initiatives to establish a strong EU policy towards Africa. It appears that conflict prevention has been one of primary objectives of the Union's policies. The paper scrutinizes the initiatives within the field of CFSP/ESDP, development assistance and trade. It is concluded that there has been a remarkable horizontal as well as institutional coherence between the initiatives falling within the area of the CFSP/ESDP. To a certain extent, the development aid policy buttressed the aims of the CFSP, whereas it is an open question if the trade policy was coherent and consistent with the aim of establishing an effective foreign policy. It is supposed that the strong involvement in conflict prevention is a reflection of the old ambition of values and norms characterising the EU. It also reflects a political will to turn the Union into a significant international actor. However, the shortcomings are there too and probably, they are to be explained by the compartmentalisation of policy making and decision making within the European Union.