European Self-Perceptions: The EU’s Geopolitical Identity and Role in Official Documents and Speeches

Abstract

The first part of this book has provided an overview of different schools of thought about how to approach the way the European Union (EU) positions itself towards Sub-Saharan Africa and the Black Sea Region. The second part introduces examples of such positioning through a combination of in-depth, qualitative fieldwork in Georgia, Ukraine, Kenya and Senegal with lexicometric analyses of official EU perceptions towards these countries (this chapter) and of external perceptions of the EU from these countries (Chapters 5–8). In line with the methodological approach outlined in the Prelude, this chapter focuses on the first of these. It draws on official EU documents and speeches and lays out how the EU perceives of its relations with the four countries of the study. It briefly reviews key EU documents that position the EU as a geopolitical actor in its relations with Sub-Saharan Africa and the Black Sea Region before it introduces the results of a lexicometric analysis of the EU’s practical geopolitics towards the four countries of this study. This analysis is based on a text corpus of all official EU press releases (including memoranda, speeches, and press conferences transcripts of official EU institutions and senior personnel) between April 2010 and March 2012 that are relevant for the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbourhood and Sub-Saharan Africa.