Conference Agenda

When united, the EU and its member states are the world's second-largest givers of development aid. Development cooperation is regarded as a valuable asset in the European Union's toolkit for external relations. However, there is a rising dispute in politics and the general public over the efficacy or even legitimacy of this policy area. Dramatic shifts in geopolitical and geoeconomic realities, competition with 'new' donors such as China and India, and the rise of nationalistic forces in the national and European parliaments have raised fundamental questions about whether the concept of development, as pursued over the last 60 years, should be completely revised.

Given Northern Africa's strategic position as the EU's near neighbour and as a relay point for Sub-Saharan Africa, the European Union's development cooperation with the region warrants a closer examination of the principles, underlying assumptions, and present implementation. Development cooperation will be obliged to reflect the Union's dramatically changing priorities in the current tenth legislation, such as resilience, economic security, and economic competitiveness. However, these disruptions present opportunities, and Northern Africa offers significant advantages as a trial ground for new methods. This hypothesis will be tested in various policy areas as well as in the context of the bordering countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It contends that development should be understood as a horizontal, integrated approach that encompasses other policy domains such as commerce, security cooperation, and immigration policy. It is thus not restricted to an institutional or budgetary definition.

The article builds on the writers' experience and analysis of international development cooperation. Based on an examination of key policy documents, debates in the European Parliament, and interviews with experts in Europe and Northern Africa, the current state of development cooperation will be critically evaluated, and recommendations for a revised framework of EU-Northern Africa relations will be developed. The contribution is timely, as the newly elected European Commission is now updating its policy framework to account for a significantly modified external collection of global actors and internal political factors. It also recognises the growing importance of Northern Africa and the Mediterranean basin as major areas of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

Support for democracy in the EU’s southern neighbourhood has been central to the EU’s Mediterranean policy since the 1990s. Development aid is a key tool for supporting democracy, as financial assistance is assumed to incentivise democratic reforms. Europe’s rhetorical support for democracy peaked amid the euphoria of the Arab uprisings, accompanied by sharp increases in aid spending. As aid became increasingly securitised and migration focussed after 2015, democracy support remained central to European narratives on engagement with MENA countries. More recently, aid has been re-framed as supporting ‘democratic standards’ in the EU’s Global Gateway infrastructure investment programme, and in the comprehensive partnership with Egypt. This raises the question of what lessons the EU has learned about using development aid in support of democracy, since the Arab Uprisings?

This article discusses insights from the literature on policy learning, such as convergence, reform and communities of practice, with reference to key aid policy documents from the European Institutions since the Arab Uprisings in 2011. We complement this with an analysis of OECD-DAC aid data from 2009 to 2022, focussing on aid for democracy relevant categories and specific projects that purport to support agents of democratic change, including civil society, local government and state institutions. Our analysis reveals a shift away from a ‘political approach’ to democracy support towards a ‘developmental approach’. This has resulted in reduced direct support to changemakers and more indirect support for economic exchange and infrastructure. We argue that this indicates a lack of learning, both about what can be effective and about what does not work. The developmental approach to democracy support has been favoured because it is less risky, but its effect has been to strengthen autocratic actors and governance systems in MENA countries.

The European Union’s Global Gateway initiative highlights the EU's recognition of its own needs in a new geopolitical reality but also mutual benefits from cooperation with the partners. The initiative has a strong focus on energy and facilitating energy supply for Europe. Yet, this predominant focus may undermine aspirations of mutual benefits and go against basic and long-upheld principles of EU international cooperation and development, including poverty eradication, ownership, effectiveness, and others. This contribution asks to what extent and in what ways the EU’s more explicitly interest-based approach of the Global Gateway is in practice openly undermining development objectives and principles. To answer that question, the contribution draws on the case of Tunisia and energy-related projects that the EU has rebranded and continues to advance under the auspices of the Global Gateway.