Home / Press review / Archive / Magazine / Politics / Africa and Europe / Background

Africa and Europe, by Susanna Wolf

« back . 1 . 2

Political and financial relations between Africa and Europe

Great Britain and France, once the largest colonial powers, still have a special relationship to Africa. More than 1.5 million Africans from the former colonies, and mainly from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia live in France (in Germany, there are only 300,000) and around 192,000 French people live in African countries. For France, the African continent is still an important source of raw material supplies. In addition, in particular the French-speaking countries are playing an increasingly important role as allies to France in international committees such as in that of the United Nations. This became clear in March 2003 when the suggestion of a UN military attack against Iraq was rejected. France was able to gain the support of more than 50 states and therefore of more than a quarter of the member states in the United Nations. Three of these countries, Cameroon, Angola and Guinea, were not regular members of the UN Security Council and, in this decisive month, Guinea had taken the chair.

The special importance of Africa for France is reflected in the foreign policies of the country. 62 percent of the French development aid flows to Africa. Not only that, but France commits itself again and again politically and militarily on the continent, for example in Algeria, the Congo, Rwanda or, since 2001, above all in the Ivory Coast Republic.

Great Britain also continues to pursue its own interests today on the African continent. Among other things, British companies are heavily involved in the crude oil sector in Northern and Western Africa, as well as in gold and diamond mining in South Africa. At a political level, Great Britain still has a major influence on the English-speaking African countries.16 African states are members of the "Commonwealth of Nations", a loose consortium of states arising from the former British Empire. The importance of Africa for Great Britain is underlined by the Commission for Africa, called into being by Tony Blair in 2004, and the prioritisation of Africa during his EU presidency and at the G8 summit in 2005, in Scottish Gleneagles.

The omnipresence of Europe in Africa can still be seen 50 years after the colonial era. Together with its member states, the EU finances more than 50 percent of the international development collaboration. When one remembers that prototype countries such as Uganda receive approximately half of their state budget via financial aid from the development collaboration, existing dependencies quickly become clear. In October 2005, the EU decided to increase their African aid monies over the next five years by 50 % to 30 billion US dollars. These means serve on the one hand to fight against poverty with respect to the millennium targets set by the United Nations, but also the accomplishment of adjustment costs which will occur due to the planned free-trade zones.

In the mean time, however, the money transfers coming from Africans living in foreign countries exceeds the financial subsidies from industrial countries for many African countries such as Burkina Faso and Lesotho. The money serves not only to finance food and school education for relatives, but is increasingly being invested in small companies and therefore increases future opportunities,

Even if South-North migration also helps the development of African continent, for Europe, this is a challenge. For one thing, Europe has its own interests in improving living conditions in developing countries, as less people would see it necessary to leave their homeland. However, there will always be a flow of migrations, from which typical immigrant regions such as Europe and the USA will, in fact, profit economically and on which they will be dependent with reference to the decline in birth rates. Immigration politics controlled at European level, coupled with national integration strategies are therefore urgently necessary in order to avoid illegal migration with its negative effects and the forced movement of immigrants to the edges of society, and in order to create a form of migration profitable for both continents.

« back . 1 . 2

Further articles on the subject » Economic Policy, » EU Policy, » International Relations, » Europe, » Africa
More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » EU Policy, » International Relations, » Europe, » Africa