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CIAO DATE: 4/5/2007
Monitoring a region in crisis: the European Union in West Africa
Marie V. Gibert
January 2007
Abstract
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire … For many, these names conjure up political crises and violent conflicts. The five West African countries that constitute the Mano River Basin have attracted significant international and regional attention and preoccupation over the last fifteen years.
Due to its history of colonial involvement in Africa, Europe shares a common past with these countries and has maintained a close partnership with them ever since their independence. This was done through the Yaoundé (1964-1969) and Lomé (1975- 2000) agreements, which established a preferential trade and development aid partnership between European member states and the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group of states. An increasing emphasis on political stability and on security was then progressively introduced into the two last Lomé agreements and their successor, the Cotonou Agreement, signed in 2000. This peace and security dimension is also fully acknowledged in the EU’s strategic partnership for Africa, which sets out the steps the EU will take by 2015 to support African efforts to build a peaceful future.
