This year was supposed to be crucial for Africa-Europe relations, culminating in the sixth AU-EU Summit, scheduled for 28 and 29 October in Brussels. But then COVID-19 happened. After a long palaver, a decision was finally taken: the summit will be postponed to 2021, although a date still needs to be fixed. Geert Laporte explains why postponing may not be such a bad thing.
In the past few months, many wondered whether the summit would still take place, and, if so, in what format. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, pushed very hard to organise the summit in Brussels before the end of the year, with the physical presence of the 55 African Union (AU) and 27 European Union (EU) heads of state and their delegations.
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