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From Development Policy to International Cooperation? Europe’s Evolving Agenda in a Geopolitical Era

By Pauline Veron and Andrew Sherriff / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

The idea that the normative foundations of European development policy would be somewhat immune from geopolitics and national political shifts was always wishful thinking. As policy priorities are being rethought and rewritten, a more openly transactional and self-interested approach to foreign policy and economic relations is gaining momentum. Development policy (and ODA spending) in Europe is increasingly being presented as part of a wider approach to international cooperation rather than something distinct.

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(Un)learning EU development policy through post-colonial lenses

By Jan Orbie

When reading the fresh manuscript of the special issue of Global Affairs on ‘Development and International Partnerships in the EU’s external relations’, with the request to write the conclusions, I was confronted with mixed feelings. The contributions written and edited by distinguished colleagues obviously show how much the field of EU development studies has advanced conceptually and empirically. Continue reading “(Un)learning EU development policy through post-colonial lenses”

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Africa’s relations with the EU: a reset is possible if Europe changes its attitude

By Niall Duggan, Luis Mah and Toni Haastrup

Summits between the African Union and European Union are essential to setting the big picture agenda of contemporary Africa-EU relations. They also carry weight because of their potential to ensure that African perspectives are also prioritised within the relationship.

Over the past six decades, trade and development has constituted the main basis for interaction between African countries, the continent’s institutions, and the EU. The EU remains an important actor in Africa despite the growing interests of other actors such as China, Turkey and the US among others.

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It’s about Europe’s future, stupid!

Against the background of the global Corona pandemic, there is an urgent need for the EU to step up its international cooperation efforts.

By Michael Obrovsky

Reacting rather swiftly to the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 crisis, The European Council in its July 2020 meeting has agreed on the reconstruction instrument “NextGenerationEU“. The latter features a financial volume of € 750 billion to strengthen the EU budget 2021-2024 and € 1,074.3 billion for the long-term budget (MFF Multiannual Financial Framework) for the period 2021-2027. While new instruments and billions of euros are being provided for the recovery of the European economy, the EU’s international cooperation framework with the Global South is still based on a pre-COVID-19 approach. Continue reading “It’s about Europe’s future, stupid!”

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Re-Politizing the European Aid Debate

By Iliana Olivié and Aitor Pérez EADI/ISS Blog Series

The economic, social and political crises that have erupted in Europe in the last decade might be shifting the academic debate on the drivers of aid from the more traditional selfish vs. solidary divide to a -somehow related- new divide on Nationalism vs. Liberalism-Cosmopolitanism. Recent examples are the Brexit process, or the rise of populist movements in Europe. Continue reading “Re-Politizing the European Aid Debate”