Name: Analysis shows EU’s influence in Africa is declining
Uploaded: 2025-11-26T01:22:13.312Z
Duration: 4 min 28 s
Description: Europe’s waning sway in Africa – Analysts say the EU is losing relevance as global geopolitics reshape alliances.

Europe’s waning sway in Africa – Analysts say the EU is losing relevance as global geopolitics reshape alliances.

Johannesburg

David Monnier, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, discussed the European Union's waning influence in Africa during a recent interview. He noted that the EU is attempting to reset its relationship with Africa amid increasing competition from the United States, China, and India, but faces criticism for maintaining unequal and exploitative ties.

Monnier highlighted that while Western countries are beginning to take Africa more seriously, substantive issues such as mineral processing, violence, and unfair pricing persist. He stressed the need for African nations to unite in order to process critical minerals locally and secure fair prices, as well as to address the root causes of migration and economic challenges.

Analysis shows EU’s influence in Africa is declining

Well, joining us live now from Johannesburg is David Monnier, an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. Thank you for speaking to us. Now, is this summit, do you think, a test to EU's ability to stay relevant in Africa as we see a change in geopolitics? Indeed, I think the summit comes at the backdrop of a successful G20 summit in Johannesburg. And it also speaks to the ever-shifting geopolitics in which the power of EU as a bloc is fast declining rapidly, whether in relation to the United States or China and other emerging markets such as India. And therefore, I think the EU is trying to reset its relationship, troubled relationship with Africa on a number of issues, ensuring that they're not left out on this competition with so many other players entering the African continent. And of course, as we were just mentioning there, one of those things that's a hot topic certainly for Europe is to stop the number of people that are arriving at its shores from Africa. Has the real crux of why this is happening been addressed, do you think? I do not think that they're addressing the issues adequately. There are lots and lots of problems. I think they know the source of the problem, yes. Most of them are problems coming from within Africa itself. But I think Europe played, and continue to play, a negative role in a number of some of these conflicts on the African continent. And the kind of relationship that they have with the continent is an unequal exploitative relationship, depressing African economies for decades and unaddressed issues of colonial past and all of the above leads to this massive number of Africans, young in particular, trying to enter the European continent. And some of them are dying along the way in the waters of the Mediterranean. And you were just mentioning, of course, the G20 summit. So this current one that we've just seen is off the back of the G20. Do you think summits like this are likely to address the real concerns that people in Africa have and whether any concrete action can be taken that considers people? I think the new thing that is happening at the moment is for the first time, some of the Western countries are starting to take Africa quite seriously. And the example is the G20, the very first one to be held on the African soil, as well as the summit. The case in the past was that Africans, head of states, go to Europe all the time. Now we're starting to see Europe trying to follow what China does, the alternate summits, one year in Africa and the other year in the other parts of the world. And it's something that is welcome and the language is changing. But substantively, there's still problems. The problem is the question of processing of some of these minerals and the violence that is taking place on the ground. There's still an unfair relation in terms of the buying price of raw materials. And therefore, I think Africa has to speak with one voice and put in place a mechanism of ensuring that they process these critical minerals at the source and also gain a fair price on these critical minerals. All right. Thank you very much for your thoughts on this, David Monyé. Speaking to us from Johannesburg.

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