Conference Agenda

The contemporary international system is in a transitional period towards an uncertain and distinctly multipolar age, within this context inter-regional cooperation between Europe and Africa is emerging as an increasingly important area for cooperation across a range of thematic areas from development and migration to peace and security. With the EU positioning itself as a more globally orientated actor and with African actors adopting an increasingly assertive and prominent position within the international system this paper examines the contemporary nature of relations between these actors across multiple levels in order to contribute towards academic and practitioner understandings of their relationship and the context it plays out in. This paper suggests that contemporary EU-African relations are characterised by three main processes (cooperation, challenge and competition) identifiable across a complex multilevel lattice of interactions both bilateral and multilateral interactions. Better understandings of these processes contribute towards explanations of the current challenges that complicate interregional relations, how they navigate periods of contestation or friction and, account for the presence of other actors vying for influence on the continent such as China, Russia and the US. Utilising content analysis of a range of policy documents across EU and African actors this paper contributes towards ongoing academic and policy discussions on EU foreign policy, its role as a global actor and its complex historical and contemporary relationship with Africa within the context of an increasingly contested and multipolar global order.

The European Union's positioning in negotiations surrounding the new United Nation tax convention reveals a paradox in the Union’s strategy to maintain relevance in an increasingly multipolar world. While the EU claims to pursue ‘equal partnerships’ and promotes new initiatives like Team Europe and Global Gateway to reinvent itself as an essential partner for the Global South, its defensive stance in international tax negotiations seems to push away potential African alliances. Drawing on participation observations and interviews with European and African negotiators, this article examines how the EU's approach to international tax negotiations affects its relationships with Africa at a time when these partnerships are crucial. I demonstrate that the EU’s perceptions of its own role, position and actions in these negotiations do not only contradict the African perceptions of the same; they also seemingly challenge the EU’s legitimacy as a global actor. I argue that the EU’s approach to international negotiations, such as the reshaping of the global financial architecture, is a key element in the African perceptions of the EU both as an ‘equal partner’ and as a potential ally.

This paper examines the trade-development-migration nexus in West Africa in relation to EU
and UK officials’ recent pursuit of free trade deals. It adopts a decolonial political economy approach allied to discourse analysis to understand how EU and UK negotiators construct free trade as a solution to unemployment, outward migration and food insecurity in West Africa. By focusing upon lived experiences of African entrepreneurs and labourers within the import-competing rice and poultry sectors based on 6 weeks of fieldwork in the region, it explores alternative ways of viewing free trade agendas. Namely, it explores African business concerns about whether free trade deals may undermine jobs, stimulate inter-continental migration, and jeopardise food security under the weight of cheap foreign importations.

Congo basin forests are the second largest block of dense moist forest after the Amazon and an exceptional reservoir (Climate focus, 2021) of carbon and biodiversity for the countries they cover and the planet (Eba’a et al. 2021).

Since the pre-rio Brundtland report entitled ‘Our Common Future’, negotiations have been held at international, transnational, and national levels to define or reinforce a set of policy measures and forest-related instruments (Nago & Ongolo, 2021) to safeguards forests including Congo basin rainforest. These efforts have been successful to some extend in Africa, nearly 90% of the Congo Basin's forest has been well preserved (Mayaux & Saracco, 2007). However, since 2010, there have been warnings of increasing commercial pressures for timber trade to support the development prospects of Congo Basin countries. As a result, the annual rate of tropical forest disturbance increased significantly between 2015 and 2020, reaching 1.79 million hectares per year. At least 27% of the undisturbed rainforests in the Congo Basin present in 2020 will disappear by 2050 if the current rate of deforestation and forest degradation continues (Atyi et al. 2022).

For decades, EU markets have been the main destination for timber from the Congo Basin, and a significant proportion of this timber has been classified as illegal export (EU, 2007). Indeed, it has been estimated that illegal logging costs around $10 billion a year in lost revenue. In response to this problem, the EU adopted the FLEGT VPA. Nearly 20 years after its adoption, how can this resolution be evaluated? As we head towards COP30 in Belem, where rainforests will be at the centre of discussions, what role can the EU play in elaborating and implementing the pledge 2, which is crucial to safeguarding the Congo Basin rainforest and the sustainable development of the countries that are home to it? These are just some of the questions that will need to be debated in a panel session in order to come up with answers.