Africa-Press – Angola. The Deputy Executive Director of the Africa-Europe Foundation, Holy Ranaivozanany, believes that the presidencies of António Costa in the European Council and of the Angolan President, João Lourenço, in the African Union are an opportunity to relaunch the Afro-European partnership.
The leader admits that, in the last two years, there has been a “decrease in terms of trust in the relationship” on the part of African countries in relation to the European Union (EU).
The Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and, more recently, the reduction in foreign aid, are factors that have contributed to this bitterness, he explained.
“I think there is a perception of double standards, that we are not fulfilling our commitments and that, in the new geopolitical context, Africa is not seen as a priority for Europe,” he told Lusa news agency, on the sidelines of the Ibrahim Governance Weekend conference, taking place in Marrakesh.
At the EU-Africa summit in February 2022, he recalled, “there was a great energy and compromises were made, but a few weeks later the war in Ukraine started and obviously there was a shift and Europe started paying more attention to the East.”
More recently, the reduction in European foreign aid to invest in rearmament has heightened the feeling of abandonment among Africans.
However, Ranaivozanany is hopeful that new impetus can be given to the relationship, and that the Portuguese-speaking world can play a role.
“We are counting on the new EU leadership to reformulate a new dynamic, with people like António Costa, who has an interest in Portuguese-speaking [African] countries, and the new leadership also in the African Union, in order to define a new direction and restart the relationship,” he told Lusa.
The deputy executive director of the Africa-Europe Foundation suggested the possibility of a new EU-Africa summit in 2025, “which could take place in Angola”.
The development of energy-related projects, the fight against illicit financial flows and investment in industrial capacity in Africa are some of the sectors that it considers to be of mutual interest.
“Progress has been made. For example, since 2022, Europe has committed to helping set up vaccine factories in Africa and this has been done in eight countries so far,” he explained.
The EU also has the `Global Gateway` Strategy, which foresees the mobilization of 150 billion euros to invest in strategic sectors in Africa.
“This is a considerable amount of money to invest in different issues, from agriculture to technology and infrastructure. We need to monitor the impact to see if it has really changed anything, how many jobs it has created and make this contribution more visible so that people understand the result of Europe’s effective partnership with Africa,” stressed Holy Ranaivozanany.
The Ibrahim Governance Weekend (IGW) 2025 conference, organized by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, ends in Marrakesh with a series of meetings hosted by several independent organizations.
The Africa-Europe Foundation, created in 2020 to promote and strengthen relations between the two continents, has a session entitled “Renewing Africa-Europe Cooperation on Transition Minerals: a win-win opportunity”.
For three days, from June 1 to Tuesday, politicians, academics and activists debated under the theme “Leveraging Africa’s resources to bridge the financial gap”, how African countries can mobilize to accelerate social and economic development in an international context of declining foreign aid.
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