Description
Analytical debate about the shape and content of EU development cooperation relations has increasingly highlighted an apparent move by the EU to a more interest driven policy format, representing a shift from the norms of social justice to a more pragmatic and instrumentalised approach. A thorough engagement with longstanding critical debates (such as Ravenhill 1985) and more recent contributions (Langan 2018, Nicolaides 2015, Price and Nunn 2004, 2018) argue however that this has been a longstanding and fundamental characteristic of the Africa-EU relationship, shaped by the experience colonialism and the configuration of post-colonial relations. Taking this critical perspective as a starting point, this paper will examine whether we are experiencing a fundamental shift in the operation of EU relations towards Africa, or a reiteration of its existing structural features. The empirical focus will be on the most recent changes to the relationship, in light of the re-negotiation of the Cotonou Agreement, the proposed overhaul of the EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework and the disintegrative/integrative impacts of Brexit. The paper will argue that the combination of these forces signals an internal re-ordering of the operation and scope of the Africa-EU relationship alongside an external reconfiguration of competitive forces and structures, which have provided a discursive dynamic to the expression of interests. However it will be argued that this reiterates the longstanding character of the relationship, shaped particularly by the EU’s interests in securing its position within the continent of Africa and within a broader changing global political economy.
