EU-Africa Summit 2022

On 17th and 18th of February, the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) met for the long-awaited summit. But since the event was planned back in 2020, the world has been ravaged by a pandemic that has stalled a decade of continuous growth and human capital improvement on the African continent.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Europe’s future wellbeing will depend more and more on the future wellbeing of its closest neighbour, Africa. So, can this summit still do what it originally set out to—and what it must set a course for— and reset the EU’s relationship with Africa as a “true partnership of equals”?

In this blog series, CGD colleagues present proposals on the joint priorities set out by the AU and the EU and offer commentary on whether a meaningful reconstruction of the relationships between the two continents is likely to materialise.

More from the Series

Blog Post

An EU Tax on African Carbon – Assessing the Impact and Ways Forward

February 10, 2022
Climate and trade will be major issues at the sixth European Union (EU) – Africa Union (AU) summit on 17-18th February. One item on the agenda is the EU’s new proposal to apply a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) on imports.The proposal is designed to lower carbon emissions globally, but at ...
Blog Post

The EU, Africa, and SDRs: More Can Be Done

February 10, 2022
The EU-AU summit is an important moment where the European Union could announce an ambitious plan to recycle its Special Drawing Rights which our analysis shows there is plenty of room to do. While some EU countries have been at the forefront of advocating for recycling, as a group the EU membe...
Blog Post

The AU and the EU: Potential for a New Humanitarian Partnership

February 03, 2022
Humanitarian problems continue to grow across Africa. Conflict, climate change and COVID-19 are the main causes. This is a problem for Africa, but also for Africa’s friends and neighbours, including the European Union (EU). Humanitarian problems increasingly cross borders, with spill over effec...
Blog Post

Pressing the Reset Button on the Africa-Europe Relationship

February 01, 2022
Africa continues to be portrayed as a continent to be “aided” by the EU: a poor, fragile, violence-plagued and conflict-ridden continent. But there also exists a modern, striving and prospering Africa. In short, Africa has much to offer the EU. This summit is the ideal time for EU leaders to press t...