Introduction: Continuity and Change in EU-Africa Relations

Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed the re-emergence of international multilateral and regional organisations as key actors on the international political scene. One of the most prominent of these institutions is the European Union (EU). One defining feature of the EU’s international outlook has been its relationship with developing countries, particularly those in Africa. Between 1957 and 1989, the bulk of the EU’s development assistance and trade favoured the African-dominated African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries. In addition, EU member states such as France, the United Kingdom and Germany maintained bilateral relations with their former colonies. Africa has therefore provided the context for many of the EU’s external relations in the past 50 years. This period maintained and entrenched the unequal relationship between European countries and the former colonies through economic aid engagement, cultivating a donor-recipient dynamic. This paradigm ensured power asymmetries that favoured European and North American countries that represented the global North, at the expense of African countries of the South.