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South African Institute of International Affairs (Johannesburg)

South Africa: Mbeki Forges New Ties with Europe

Romy Chevallier

25 July 2008

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analysis

Johannesburg — South Africa, the only African state to date to have signed a "strategic partnership agreement" with the European Union, is holding a summit with the EU today in Bordeaux, France.

The summit, the first heads of state meeting since the establishment of the partnership in May 2007, will build on the discussions that have been held since November 2004 in six EU-South Africa ministerial troika meetings.

During today's discussions, President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the current chair of the European Council, Javier Solana, secretary general of the council, as well as Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

But how different is a strategic partnership from the ongoing bilateral engagements between the EU and South Africa?

The EU's engagement with key states through strategic partnerships is part of its external repositioning aimed at strengthening its relations with important, emerging powers, especially in the developing world.

These developments reflect recognition by the EU of the changes in the global geopolitical landscape, as well as the need to explore broader areas of engagement with new partners on issues of international concern. China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, and now South Africa, are becoming increasingly significant actors on global issues. The EU is in the process of initiating strategic partnerships with all of them.

The European Security Strategy of 2003 speaks specifically of the establishment of strategic partnerships with China, Japan, Canada and India, as well as with other countries that share the EU's value systems and goals. The strategy calls for an effective and balanced partnership with the U.S., and mentions Russia as another strategic partner, subject to respect for common values.

The EU commissioner for external relations and European neighbourhood policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner recently reiterated "the growing interconnectedness of the global economy and a shift towards emerging economies, with China and India soon to become the world's second and sixth largest economies." He said: "The EU has to adapt to this, not by creating 'fortress Europe,' but by seeing the opportunities this offers. It is building up strategic partnerships with these economies, and has, for example, made concrete progress in negotiations with China and Russia on issues such as market access, energy and human rights."

Europe is both a "soft" and a "smart" power. Its new external strategy attempts to address the twin challenges of bridging the gap between Europe's substantial economic weight and its more modest international influence. The global dimension is also crucial for the Union: dealing with issues such as climate change, the need for energy and other raw materials, immigration and trade and investment flows – all critical aspects of the Joint EU-Africa Strategy (and accompanying action plan) signed in December 2007, as well as in Euro-Mediterranean Partnership agreements.

The economic importance of EU-SA relations today

Bilateral relations between the EU and South Africa are not new and have deepened substantially since 1994. South Africa is an important emerging power and a key strategic partner to the EU by virtue of its dominance and engagement with its region – politically, economically, and militarily. For example, South Africa contributes approximately 50 percent to sub-Saharan Africa's GDP and nearly 75 percent of that of the Southern African Customs Union. South African foreign direct investment in the rest of Southern Africa represents 49 percent of the region's total.

Today the EU is South Africa's biggest trade and investment partner, accounting for over 40 percent of its imports and 30 percent of its exports, as well as for 66 percent of foreign direct investment (in December 2006). Total trade has increased five-fold, from R56.5 billion in 1994 to R313 billion in 2007. The EU is also South Africa's principal development partner representing approximately 80 percent of all Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) in 2005.  South Africa is earmarked to receive €980 million for 2007-2013 – a substantial amount but which represents less than one percent of South Africa's national budget.

Due to the EU's long-standing historical and cultural ties with the continent, Africa remains a focal area for the EU. The EU has revised its Africa strategy, taking into account changing global realities, new partnerships on the continent and good practices. The EU, therefore, regards South Africa as a vital ally in Africa because of its willingness to become involved in regional and continental matters.

Revisiting existing cooperation

Following the visit of President Mbeki to the EU in 2004, the European Commission felt that relations with South Africa needed to be elevated beyond the framework of the SA-EU Trade and Development Cooperation Agreement (TDCA), into a more coherent and substantive Strategic Partnership along the lines of those the EU has with countries such as India, China and Brazil.

This elevated bilateral partnership is supposed to represent a fundamental shift and rearrangement of the nature, structure and basis of past relations between the EU and SA. Despite existing cooperation mechanisms, both partners agree that it is necessary to intensify dialogue at all levels of cooperation, with all relevant stakeholders. This elevated partnership will move beyond existing areas of cooperation, to include new issue-areas that take changing global scenarios into account, and accommodate the political and economic realities of both continents today.

Primarily a political statement on the status of the bilateral relationship between EU and South Africa, the revised Strategic Partnership attempts to move relations from regular political dialogue to intense, strategic cooperation at Summit level. The joint action plan for the establishment of the EU-SA Strategic Partnership, adopted at their Ministerial Troika on 10 October 2007, revised the structure of current EU-SA relations to include a holistic approach of all existing sectoral cooperation, as well as to include seven new areas of dialogue.

Areas of ongoing collaboration include trade, development, science and technology, as well as a progress report of the revision and implementation of the TDCA. However, this will broaden substantially to include cooperation efforts on peace and security, migration, energy, environment and climate change, as well as transport, customs and social dialogue, food security.

These new items have quickly moved the dialogue forward, identifying priority issues in each new cluster, and in many instances establishing terms of reference for working groups. These areas will be discussed at today's summit and troika meeting. For example, South Africa has submitted a draft proposal to the EU regarding collaboration on migration. South Africa has proposed that the EU revise some of its migration and asylum policies, and that it re-visit its approach and procedures for visa applications for South African business people. The summit will also address EU capacity building measures like migration management (particularly combating illegal migration), smuggling and trafficking, data capturing, transfer of technology and financial assistance.

In terms of the progress to date on climate change and environment, the EU-SA Energy Dialogue Forum has set up three working groups that deal with clean coal technology, carbon capture and storage, and clean and efficient energy. One of the options under discussion is nuclear generation.  This was most notable during President Sarkozy's visit to South Africa in February this year. As president of the European Council during the second half of 2008, France has prioritised nuclear energy as a response to South Africa's energy crisis.

At the summit progress is expected on the following items: the establishment of a peace and security forum; the beginning of a maritime transport dialogue; a framework for bilateral EU-SA space cooperation; announcement of an Erasmus Mundus Window – a cooperation programme in higher education – and a project plan for customs cooperation; and new flagship initiatives to strengthen cooperation, which also includes a contribution to science and technology development in SADC.

A key element of the relationship – and an issue which underlines South Africa's entire approach to the establishment of the strategic partnership – is that both parties declared themselves as fully committed to the development goals of Africa. In fact, the EU-SA joint action plan makes specific reference to "the EU's full support of South Africa's commitment to the African agenda".

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