Europe and the South in the 1990s: Disengagement to the South and Integration to the North of the Sahara

Abstract

This chapter aims to paint a picture, using a broad brush, of the changes that appear to be underway in EC attitudes and policies towards the South. Its purpose is to explain one of the elements in the external environment facing countries of the South. It is hoped that it will help commentators from the South the better to identify an appropriate development path, avoiding strategies that are based on an unrealistic expectation of the degree and nature of European involvement. But it makes no effort to identify of what such strategies might consist — that is the task of other chapters in this book. The argument of this chapter is that:

• external relations are founded in a mix of political and economic interests;

• the existing pattern of Europe’s relations with the South no longer reflects its economic interests as a result of the changing international division of labour;

• although the old pattern might have continued under the weight of government inertia, the single European market (SEM), Eastern Europe and the GATT talks will provoke changes;

• the new pattern will be created by two sets of forces: the changes associated with the SEM and so on are likely to ‘downgrade’ some LDCs, including many of the poorest; but the higher profile given to issues such as public health, migration and the environment will act in the opposite direction in some cases;