The EU sub-regional and bilateral relations with African countries

Legal frameworks and financial instruments

Whereas the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) is the overall political framework defining continent to continent relations, the EU also maintains sub-regional and bilateral relations with African countries. These are defined by different legal frameworks.

All North African countries are part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and benefit from its financial instrument, the ENPI. Political dialogue with North African partners takes place in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) according to its own modalities. The regional approach with North Africa is defined in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.

Relations with Sub-Saharan African countries take place under the legal framework of the Partnership Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP), the so-called Cotonou Agreement, as revised for the second time in 2010. The Cotonou Agreement covers both political dialogue and financial cooperation at the national and sub-regional level. Its financial instrument is the European Development Fund (EDF) - except for South Africa which is covered by the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI).

The EU has also decided to hold specific political dialogues taking place at ministerial level with key partners, being countries (Nigeria, Cap-Verde, South Africa) or regions (The Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), East and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, Central Africa and the Southern African Development Community(SADC).

In addition, the EU is also developing regional strategies to provide a holistic response to problems in the Sahel pdf - 81 KB [81 KB] and in the Horn of Africa regions.