Thread by @cchukudebelu

Ideally Europe should be Africa's most dynamic trading partner, but there is this thing called "history".

Post WW2, Europe was "saved" by access to the US consumer, barring that Europe would have done the only thing it knows how to do;

Exploit Africa.

France is the major driver of European engagement in Africa;

Old habits die hard.

France was a colonial power, is a colonial power - and will always behave like a colonial power in Africa;

If given the opportunity.

And Francophone Africa gives them the opportunity.

As for the rest of Europe;

Italy's interest in Africa doesn't extend beyond immigration, and what is good for ENI/AGIP. (Libya is a metaphor for Italian engagement).

Spain (for obvious reasons) is more interested in business links with Latin America.

With the exit of UK from the EU, Netherlands feels marooned. They are more used to doing business with the more pro-free trade British (e.g. Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell) than with statist France and domineering manufacturing/export obsessed Germany.

They aren't comfortable.

As for the so-called "Central Europe", the less said about them, the better.

They are only interested in "Africa" within the context of the "Black peril". Scare stories about hordes of Black immigrants on their borders are useful to identitarians like Viktor Orban.

Then within Europe itself, there are teething problems;

1. Germany has to bail Southern Europe.
2. France has outsized foreign policy ambitions, which it expects Germany to fund.
3. Demographic crisis.
4. Common monetary policy (ECB) without a fiscal union.

The whole thing is a tower of Babel, with Germany the clear leader;

But Germany is extremely reluctant to lead.

So I don't expect anything significant to happen in EU-Africa relations - and EU's future growth potential is limited.