Luca Barana, A Geopolitical Commission in Africa: Streamlining Strategic Thinking on Trade and Cooperation, IAI Commentaries, 20:2, IAI, January 2020.
The new European Commission lead by Ursula von der Leyen has outlined ambitious goals for the future, highlighting her objective to make the Commission more “geopolitical” so as to boost the EU’s standing as a “global actor”. Africa should feature as an important dimension of this goal. As traditional and emerging actors are stepping up their power ambitions in the continent, Europe requires a more focused and strategic engagement with Africa. Von der Leyen and the College of commissioners will still have to struggle with the legacies of the previous institutional cycle and, overall, with the complex web of competing frameworks that still shape EU–Africa relations.
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