Ordem Internacional e Multilateralismo

Facing a Globalised World: The New EU-Africa Partnership, por João Gomes Cravinho

The European Union’s external relations over the past decade have been undergoing a process of adaptation to current trends in world affairs. Although not moving as fast as the founding ambitions would require, it is true to say that the European behemoth has been seeking to find ways of adapting to a changing world. New actors, new or reformulated challenges, trends of integration and disintegration, as well as an enlarged Union have all played an important part in this process of rethinking Europe’s role in the world. But as the EU devised ways to engage strategically with other major international actors, Africa was somehow treated according to the old postcolonial paradigm. The Lisbon EU-Africa Summit of December 2007 signalled a joint will to shift this state of affairs. Bearing this in mind, the present article starts with a general description of the major international changes, worldwide, in Europe, and in Africa, as a background and rationale for the new Europe-Africa partnership. It then moves on to focus on the specificity of this partnership, to conclude with a brief and preliminary assessment of the first months since the Lisbon Summit and the challenges of implementing a Joint Strategy.