A flawless ministerial, top marks, a shared commitment to multilateral institutions and a common goal to reform them, topped off by a determination to deliver results at the upcoming AU-EU summit. That’s how both African and European speakers summed up last week’s EU-AU foreign ministers’ meeting during the debrief we organised with the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). Is this much-touted relationship finally maturing into something both continents can truly benefit from, or is it too good to be true? It seems that current geopolitical uncertainty and unpredictability might have helped sharpen focus and align priorities.
Around 60 African and European foreign ministers gathered in Brussels last week for their third ministerial meeting. With EUISS, we organised an event immediately afterwards to capture fresh impressions from participants, just before they boarded their flights home.
The room was packed. A number of African foreign ministers and many African ambassadors joined us, alongside a full house of European officials, diplomats, journalists, NGO representatives and researchers. We were especially pleased to welcome both South Africa’s deputy minister of international relations and cooperation, Thandi Moraka, and Zambia’s foreign minister, Mulambo Haimbe, on stage.
They highlighted the challenges facing their countries and the continent at large, while also stressing the importance of multilateral approaches to address them. In that context, both made it clear that they value the EU-AU relationship and were pleased with how the ministerial meeting had gone. This was the ‘on-the-record’ part of the event and, of course, it’s unlikely for politicians taking part in these types of events to go ‘off-script’ and talk openly about disagreements and tensions. My impression, though, was that there was a genuine sense of satisfaction with how things had gone.
I was moderating the ‘off-the-record’ debrief session, joined on stage by one EU and one AU official, both directly involved in the ministerial meeting. I asked them to rate the ministerial on a scale of one to ten. Their answers were striking. “9.99”, said the AU official. “9.999”, added the EU official with a smile, “and it’ll be a 10 at the summit later this year” – to the bemused surprise of the room.
When asked to explain such unusually high scores, they pointed to several factors: the high level of attendance, the constructive tone of discussions, the overall positive atmosphere and the openness and maturity of the dialogue – all signs that the relationship has evolved significantly. The AU official even noted how surprising it was that participants seemed to be “reading from the same notes”, such was the degree of convergence.
Again, can this be true? Are they trying to give an impression of unity, glossing over contentious issues, such as migration? According to the officials, the discussions on peace and security and on multilateralism lasted the longest, and I’m guessing these were also the topics where there was more common ground. One senior official who had negotiated the final text for the EU side told us right after the event that the divisions appeared stronger among Europeans than with the African delegations.
But there may be more to it. The ministerial was well underway when, thousands of kilometres away, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa was on the receiving end of yet another ‘ambush’ by US president Trump. This kind of behaviour, coupled with decisions like the dismantling of USAID and the introduction of trade tariffs, may have helped sharpen the focus and cast the EU-AU relationship in a different, possibly more trustworthy, light.
In this context, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas made a pointed remark during her press conference. “The European Union is the partner Africa can rely on”, she said – a not-so-subtle nod to the unreliability of other global players. And yet, our latest paper on how the EU is perceived highlights the credibility problem the EU still has in the Global South. As the paper notes: “Perceptions of hypocrisy, double standards and post-colonial attitudes persist, and initiatives such as the Global Gateway are often seen as top-down and lacking consultation or tangible benefits”. Addressing these perceptions is not an easy task, and the EU official agreed that the EU needs to improve its communication efforts.
The agreed communiqué, while a typical blend of aspiration and pragmatism, provides a picture of where things stand and the work that still lies ahead. By no means perfect, it does reflect a set of shared priorities that will be central to preparations for the upcoming AU-EU summit. That, in itself, is progress. There will be many occasions this year where both the EU and the AU will have to prove the global relevance and value of this partnership, from the G20 summit in South Africa to COP30 in Brazil. All these summits are happening toward the end of this year in a crowded summit calendar. There are rumours that the next AU-EU summit might also take place in the final quarter of 2025.
While surfing on the positive and constructive mood of the ministerial, one is also acutely aware that the priority list is long, the needs huge and the challenges formidable. The continent-to-continent dialogue is key and the ministerial confirmed the willingness to walk this path together, but the track record of 25 years of partnership leaves much to be desired.
Maybe think tanks are well placed to explore and suggest a different approach to the partnership – for instance, one that focuses on defining a positive agenda around specific issues of shared interest, where like-minded member states on both sides can align and drive progress together. So, busy times ahead for us all.
About the Author
Virginia Mucchi is the head of ECDPM’s outreach and impact department. She leads the outreach and impact team and is responsible for centre-wide communications and media relations. She is also a member of the management team and the gender task force.