EU's New Finance Instruments: The European Peace Facility

In 2020, the nature of the cooperation between the European Union and Africa is being negotiated and might profoundly change: a new EU-Sahel Strategy, a new EU-Africa Strategy, the EU-AU summit in autumn, the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, the development of new finance instruments – all against the background of a shaky multilateralism an the challenges posed by the corona crisis. An opportunity to raise the partnership to “a new level”? An opportunity to address not only issues such as security, migration, hunger and poverty but also sustainability, the empowerment of women and youth and fair trade?

The EU is providing substantial financial support to the Africa Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Within this framework, Germany is playing an important role through technical and institutional support. After the evaluation of the EU’s engagement towards the APSA by the European Court of Auditors in 2018, the EU’s engagement for peace, security and democracy on the African Continent will be re-defined through new financial instruments: the European Peace Facility (EPF) and the Neighbourhood, Development, International Cooperation instrument (NDICI). Both instruments will replace the African Peace Facilitate (APF). The APF - through its provisions on governance and a strong role of the AU PSC - strengthened the cooperation between the AU and the EU on a continental level. The way that EPF and NDICI are designed, they might lead to a more interest based and flexible engagement of the EU on peace and security on the African continent. In the web-seminar we discussed the possible impact of the new financial instrument EPF and NDICI on the AU-EU, especially for the system of collective security and the long-term goal to strengthen civic conflict prevention.