Project EU-Africa: Changes of Strategy in Competitive Environment

The aim of this article is to identify changes in the priorities of the EU’s African strategy, seeking to maintain its position on the continent in light of competition from such actors as the United States and China, as well as to trace the evolution of the relations formats and influence of integration processes on the EU-Africa relations model. The authors use complex interdisciplinary approach, narrative methods and comparative analysis to determine new trends in EU cooperation with African countries including transition to multilateralism and regionalization; applying elements of integration and external Europeanization as convergence and incorporation of procedures, practices and norms in cooperation projects in Africa, using “soft power” instruments; policy of “equal partnership” and politicization of EU-Africa relations. However, the effectiveness of Europeanization as a replication of the European value system and democratic transition in African countries with other civilizational norms is very limited, so EU countries follow institutional logic in their relations with them. The authors underscore that the process of regional integration in Africa is one of the results of deepening cooperative interactions against the backdrop of its continuing asymmetry, also being an important difference of EU-Africa project from other cooperative models. Asymmetry manifests in economic relations, especially trade agreements, recognition of equal partnership, different positions in new world order, intra-country development differences and financial and labor force abilities of African countries. Equally relevant is the analysis of EU competition with the USA and China in Africa, identifying its specific traits in cooperation with the continent, and future prospects of the EU cooperation with African countries under the new realities and possible shortcomings of a new EU-Africa project.

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