The EU and Angola: Making Up for Lost Time?
By Pedro Seabra, Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security (IPRIS)
On April 19-21, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso paid a long awaited three-day visit to Angola, with one simple stated goal: catching up. Catching up to the time and opportunities lost in a relationship that has been neglected or poorly nurtured over the years, especially in comparison with other international suitors like China or Brazil, who have persistently wooed Angola in the hopes of figuring among its top foreign relations priorities.
… In Barroso’s own words, it “would be a mistake, it would be short-sighted for Europe not to be more present in the development tasks ahead of Angola”.
…The instrument chosen to achieve such a goal was the so-called Joint Way Forward (JWF) mechanism that the EU has used in the past to promote its relations with countries that have not yet reached the ‘strategic partnership’ level but are considered important enough to receive considerable official attention. In the case of Angola, negotiations towards the final approval of the JWF have been taking place for years now and many assumed that a final agreement would remain difficult to achieve.
… Nevertheless, despite Barroso’s own admission that the process hasn’t gone as smoothly as the EU had hoped, significant advancements have apparently been reached and Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos was even invited to visit Brussels to personally sign the final agreement, thus “elevating to a superior level the relations between the EU and Angola”.
… Auspicious expectations aside, EU officials tread a fine line when it comes to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Angola, expected to be held in the second quarter of 2012. Unlike UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon when he recently travelled to Luanda, Barroso actually met with Angolan opposition leaders and civil society leaders, seeking to highlight the efforts made by all Angolans towards preserving national peace and stability while granting nearly €1.2 million for electoral support to local movements. That did not mean, however, that he backed down from the previous announcement that the EU would not send electoral observers this time, despite the insistent requests from opposition parties.
Full article: IPRIS Viewpoints 94 www.ipris.org/php/download.php?fid=721