Challenges and Complexities: The European Union’s Role in Global Dynamics

There seems to be no quiet summer for the European Union when it looks beyond its borders. In addition to its internal efforts in the midst of a crisis, there are instabilities abroad that make the bloc wonder what its role is in the world, but above all what function it has had as a global player up to now.

If two years ago it was the seizure of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan and in 2022 the war in Ukraine changed everything, this time they are months marked by the coup in Niger that once again warns the West that it cannot ignore what happens in Africa and especially in the Sahel.

“It is not a question of strategic autonomy, but of knowing how to manage crises that affect us in one way or another,” say the community sources consulted, who are also aware that the Union still has neither the capacity nor the powers to influence as you would like compared to other players such as Russia or China.

In fact, in Niger the supporters of the coup leaders welcome the role of Moscow, something that is of great concern in Brussels.

The return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan showed the vulnerabilities of the United States and at the same time showed that the EU cannot depend on Washington depending on what situations.

This was assumed at the time by the High Representative, Josep Borrell, who since then set out to promote the strategic autonomy of the Union. “Afghanistan has shown that the deficiencies of our strategic autonomy have a price,” said the Spanish leader, now determined to relaunch European Defense, for example with a rapid response battalion for situations like the one experienced in Kabul.

Brussels considers that future approaches have to start much more from “the common”.

This trend has been confirmed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. Putin has strengthened NATO but has also put the European Union in front of its mirror: dependencies are a danger, in the case of Russia especially at the energy level but also military.

Since February 2022, the EU has taken steps towards greater integration in the field of Defense, with training for Ukrainian soldiers and the formation of battalions to support the advances of Volodimir Zelenski’s Army, although without directly entering the conflict.

However, the 27 – which continue to have most of the powers – maintain some difference: France and Germany want to move towards one hundred percent European forces while other Member States such as Poland or the Baltics prefer to continue under the umbrella of the Alliance atlantic.

At the same time, the Kremlin wants to continue tightening the screws on the West as much as possible.

The Russian president has also spoken about Niger – where there was also allegedly an intervention by the Wagner group, mercenaries sponsored by Moscow despite the latest controversies with their leader in the framework of the invasion of Ukraine – and has maintained a well-known tone to the less out doors.

Putin called to resolve the crisis affecting the African country by “exclusively peaceful” means, in a new rejection of the possible military intervention slipped by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The EU has always had Africa in mind

Viviane Ogou, founder of Puerta de África, explains to 20min that “popular” Europe has not yet understood the situation and relations with the Sahel.

“You just have to see how the Niger issue is being handled in the media, for example. There is no real conception or critical debate, for example, on the role of France”. The question “is much more complex than it seems”, concludes.

On the other hand, at the EU level “they have always known” the importance of Africa. “A foreign policy is structured” with the continent, “with lines already marked before the pillars are structured with the Treaty of Maastricht”. The EU “has always had Africa in mind.”

But this does not mean that he knows how to manage the situation one hundred percent.. France, says Ogou, “always tries to regionalize its foreign policy, and this is clearly seen with the question of the Sahel.

There is a Europeanization of many French issues”, which in the end is a consequence of the fact that competition in foreign policy is in the hands of the 27. The fact that Paris is no longer well received in Niger affects the role of the EU, which is looking for ways to react to make itself more credible.

For his part, Daniel Gil, an analyst at The Political Room, adds that these crises “do not have much to do with each other but they do already glimpse the world we are in” and to which the European Union has to adapt.

“Everything is much more unstable, and the United States neither wants nor can be the policeman of the planet”. The EU has always seen multipolarity “as something positive” but the scenario is what it is, even if this multipolarity “favors the Union as a commercial power that it is”. Instead, now the EU will have to “strive to play a significant role.”

Regarding Niger, it is difficult, says Gil, to analyze whether or not the Union has learned its lesson because “European influence in Africa has been in decline for many years” and France “has played a very negative role in the region because it has never been able to get rid of the stain of colonialism and establish positive relations” with the mainland.

That “French leadership in Africa has proven to be a failure” and shows “European weakness”. This is seen in the fact that Russia, which is “an international pariah”, manages to “win so many geopolitics in an area as sensitive to the EU as the Sahel”. Events are alerting the Union that, the analyst concludes, “it’s not just good with soft power.”

In this context, the EU insists that it needs “allies” for the future and wants to ensure them through the so-called Global Gateway, which is a strategy prepared precisely to compete with Moscow and Beijing, while also reducing dependencies with the United States.

In any case, it is a long-term plan: in the meantime, Brussels will have to watch carefully (and without much room for manoeuvre) what happens in parts of the world that, indirectly, will end up influencing it. The map is now full of surprises.