Philomena Apiko & Franz Schmidjell: AFRICA, EUROPE AND THE WAR IN THE UKRAINE

A year ago, AU and EU held their sixth summit, in Brussels.
Whereas the sentiments afterwards were optimistic on the EU-side
– mainly because it had rolled out their Global Gateway
initiative to be financed with 150 billion €, Africans were
disappointed: Europe had made promises, as always, but
discussions were still not on an equal level, issues like
migration, Covid 19, and even security had been put aside. The
summit results were immediately overshadowed by Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine, whose spill over effects continue to affect EU-Africa
relations. The war has devastating effects on food and fuel
security across Africa, deepening existing food crisis, driving
millions more into poverty, triggering protests and political
instability across the continent and increasing the risk of
long-lasting armed conflicts, in the Sahel. Africans view EU
sanctions on Russia as exacerbating Africa´s food security and
economic problems. EU funding for Ukraine fuel concerns that
financial promises made to African countries may no longer hold.
Georg Lennkh will discuss with Philomena Apiko and Franz
Schmidjell about the economic, social and political impact of the
war in Ukraine on African countries, on EU- Africa relations and
about what this means for Europe.


Philomena Apiko, Head of the EU – AU Department
at the Centre for Africa – Europe relations. She specialises in
AU-EU relations, AU reforms, trade and regional integration,
gender, governance, democracy and human rights, and international
law and justice.


Franz Schmidjell, Deputy Director of Vienna
Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation VIDC


Moderation: Georg Lennkh, Ambassador ret.,
former Special Representative for Africa of the Austrian
Government, Member of the Board of Bruno Kreisky Forum