EU launches summit reset with Africa after pandemic pause

Record ID: 1662584

  • Title: EU launches summit reset with Africa after pandemic pause
  • Date: 16th February 2022
  • Summary: BAMAKO, MALI (FILE - SEPTEMBER 30, 2021) (Video obtained by Reuters) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** OPENED RUSSIAN PLANE ON TARMAC MALIAN INTERIM DEFENCE MINISTER SADIO CAMARA (WEARING SCARF) WITH SOLDIERS ON TARMAC CAMARA SPEAKING TO RUSSIAN OFFICERS VARIOUS OF HELICOPTER AND BOXES CONTAINING WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION IN RUSSIAN PLANE CAMARA SHAKING HANDS WITH RUS
  • Embargoed: 2nd March 2022 19:28
  • Keywords: AU Africa African Union Brussels COVID-19 China Coup EU Europe European Union Political unstability Russia coronavirus summit vaccine
  • Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST/STRASBOURG, FRANCE/BRUSSELS, BELGIUM/JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA/DAKAR, SENEGAL/BAMAKO, MALI/OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO/CONAKRY, GUINEA/MOMBASA, KENYA/KOLWEZI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • City: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST/STRASBOURG, FRANCE/BRUSSELS, BELGIUM/JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA/DAKAR, SENEGAL/BAMAKO, MALI/OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO/CONAKRY, GUINEA/MOMBASA, KENYA/KOLWEZI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: European Union,Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA00DFYXC2FB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The EU will welcome more than 40 African leaders to Brussels on Thursday (February 17) in an effort to reassert its influence on a continent where China and Russia have made hefty investment inroads, and where many felt let down by Europe's COVID-19 vaccines rollout.
    The European Union will offer several packages of support at the summit to bolster health, education and stability in Africa, and will pledge half of a new 300 billion euro investment drive launched to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative.
    The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said ahead of the two-day meeting - postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic - that the two continents were closely interlinked.
    "The African problems are our problems. And when we work to try (to solve) these problems, we work for ourselves also," he told the European Parliament on Tuesday (February 15).
    European and other wealthy nations were heavily criticised for hoarding protective equipment and later vaccines during the pandemic, with some leaders saying the slow pace of donations could lead to "vaccine apartheid".
    Africa initially struggled to get COVID vaccines as rich countries snapped up limited supplies. Deliveries later picked up, but just 10% of Africans are fully vaccinated.
    Frank Mattheis, an expert in regional studies at the United Nations University, said the summit would aim at reconciling the two blocs over the issue.
    "The main purpose of the meeting is really to show that there's political will on both continents to harmonize relationships, to advance and to put it on an equal footing," he told Reuters.
    The Brussels-based researcher said the key announcement to be made during the summit would be the amount of investment the European Union would bring to the table.
    "There have been already numbers going around of 150 billion euros that should go to the African continent - not all at once but over the next six-seven years. So this is to a large degree not new budgets but repackaged money that already was committed but it's important to see where it will be dedicated to," Mattheis said in an interview.
    Other tensions between the two blocs relate to the erosion of democracy in several African countries, some of which have recently seen coups d'etat.
    Mattheis said this could lead to difficult moments during the summit - the first to held in this format since 2017 in the Ivorian capital Abidjan.
    The meeting will come after French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce his intention to withdraw forces from Mali after hosting a top-level meeting on the Sahel region of Africa on Wednesday.
    Ties have worsened since Mali's military junta went back on an agreement to organise elections in February and proposed holding power until 2025.
    (Production: Christian Levaux, Clement Rossignol)
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