ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — All hail Ursula von der Leyen, African Queen (for a day, at least) and leader of the new, “geopolitical” European Commission.
By visiting Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and seat of the African Union, on her very first trip abroad as European Commission president, von der Leyen personally delivered a striking statement: that the EU is making a new priority of its continental neighbor to the south — and not just because it wants to put a halt to a potentially destabilizing stream of economic migrants.
It was a message she delivered as much by listening as by talking. It won her a raft of praise and new friends on a continent that has long viewed Europe warily through the prism of colonial history and its ambiguous aftermath, in which Europe has proven to be a dependable source of development aid yet failed to show any real political will on Africa’s behalf.
The trip also served as a pointed notice to Beijing, Washington and Moscow that von der Leyen meant business when she declared that the EU, under her leadership, would act with new assertiveness on the global stage.
“This visit is the first step in registering a strategic departure for Europe,” said Alexander Rondos, who has served since 2012 as the EU’s special representative for the Horn of Africa. “It is about the EU being seen and felt in Africa — and by other interests in Africa — as something more than an ATM machine.”
“Today, I am not here to present some grand plan for Africa. I am here first and foremost to listen” — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Touching down at daybreak on Saturday, not even a week after taking office, for a stay that last barely 17 hours, von der Leyen may well have begun to rewrite that decades-old paradigm, even if she didn’t stay the night.
“The African Union is a partner I count on and I look forward working within the spirit of a true partnership of equals,” she said in her first stop at the AU headquarters building. “Today, I am not here to present some grand plan for Africa. I am here first and foremost to listen.”
In a brief interview with a small group of journalists traveling with her, von der Leyen said she purposely had not stressed the migration issue, because it was far too complicated to deal with in introductory meetings.
A new partnership
Instead, von der Leyen laid out plans for a new relationship that envisions EU and African nations as partners on crucial issues like fighting climate change and promoting digital advances.
Chairperson of the African Union Moussa Faki Mahamat speaks during a briefing to the press with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Addis Ababa, on December 7, 2019 | Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
She also urged that they act as joint stakeholders in a multilateral, rules-based international system that values collective decision-making over unilateral domination by great powers like the U.S. or China.
“Both the European Union and the African Union, we are multilateral structures by definition and as such we can be the backbone of the United Nations systems but we also can be very strong partners within the United Nations systems,” von der Leyen said.
Her presence alone already won her effusive praise from her African hosts.
“I would also like to express my appreciation for selecting Ethiopia, selecting Africa and also planning to work with Africa with Ethiopia as well,” said Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who welcomed von der Leyen for lunch at his office. “I think that’s the right decision for Europe. It’s the right priority to work with Africa.”
Abiy, who on Tuesday will go to Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering an end to a 20-year conflict with neighboring Eritrea, noted von der Leyen’s background as German defense minister, and the prior experience of Jutta Urpilainen, the EU’s commissioner for international partnerships who was also on the trip, as finance minister of Finland.
“It’s a very good team, a very good combination, which will make significant impacts in the EU member states as well as in the relationship between the EU and Africa,” Abiy said.
“I am very happy to see Ethiopia and the European Union are on the right side of history — giving women their due, giving to women their place, their space” — Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairperson of the African Union Commission and a former prime minister of Chad, was similarly positive. “We are grateful. This highlights, if needed, her engagement and the importance of the partnership between Europe and Africa.”
The quick visit to Ethiopia also gave von der Leyen the opportunity, perhaps unexpected, to showcase her efforts at building a gender-balanced Commission. At the prime minister’s office, there was the symmetry of the two European women, von der Leyen and Urpilainen, posing for photographs with the two African men, Abiy and Finance Minister Ahmed Shide.
And later in the day, von der Leyen expressed particular pleasure at meeting President Sahle-Work Zewde, currently the only African head of state who is a woman. The sentiment was mutual.
“It is a great pleasure for me to welcome the first female president of the European Union Commission,” Sahle-Work said, as she and von der Leyen stood in the foyer of the presidential palace near a stuffed lion lying on the floor that had prompted von der Leyen to exclaim, “Oooh-la-la.”
“I am very happy to see Ethiopia and the European Union are on the right side of history — giving women their due, giving to women their place, their space,” Sahle-Work continued. “So I think this is a very good start, very encouraging one and we have promised that we have worked together.”
A continent at a crossroads
Symbolism aside, if the EU is indeed making a real pivot in Africa, diplomats and other experts say it could not come fast enough — and indeed some fear that it is already too late, given China’s enormous diplomatic and financial investments in recent decades.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed board a car after leaving the Prime Minister’s Office in Addis Ababa on December 7, 2019 | Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Experts say that many African nations, including Ethiopia, have reached a historic inflection point — and are now undergoing various levels of government and societal transition and transformation on a scale that recalls Eastern Europe in the early 1990s. Young generations have revolted against autocratic regimes, but while these countries are at a crossroads, external powers, including China, the Gulf states and Russia are maneuvering for regional influence.
In many ways, Abiy seems to embody the choices that lie ahead.
On the one hand, he has taken historic gambles toward democracy and openness by agreeing to end the conflict with Eritrea, pursuing economic and social reforms, and expanding press freedoms. But Abiy himself rarely agrees to answer journalists’ questions, and has stirred controversy by telling the Nobel prize committee that he would not take any questions while in Oslo to receive his award.
Abiy’s meeting with von der Leyen also underscored the challenges she will face in trying to build a new type of relationship with Africa. She and Urpilainen did not come to Ethiopia empty-handed, and during their visit to the prime minister’s office there was a signing ceremony for €170 million in new aid from the EU for health programs, modernization of the electoral system, environmental initiatives and for economic development.
But Abiy said his government was hoping for yet more support.
Stakes for the EU are also high in Gulf of Aden, where a joint naval force has undertaken Operation Atalanta to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia — a critical maritime route for EU trade.
“We are still demanding more financial support because we are ambitious,” he said, capitalizing on von der Leyen’s comment that he was a particularly young prime minister. “When you are young prime minister you are also more ambitious and you want to deliver more,” he said. “For us to deliver more for our people, we need financial support from Europe, and that helps us realize our vision.”
Ethiopia, like many African countries, will hold national elections in 2020, furthering raising the risks of political unrest.
For her part, von der Leyen backed up her rhetoric with a call for decisive steps in accordance with a clear timetable: a “college to college” meeting between the EU and the African Union in Addis Adaba in February, a comprehensive strategy on Africa by mid-March, and an EU-Africa summit in Brussels in October.
Stakes for the EU are also high in Gulf of Aden, where a joint naval force has undertaken Operation Atalanta to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia — a critical maritime route for EU trade. Experts warn that any upheaval in the Horn of Africa, or spillover from the ongoing conflict in Yemen could pose a threat to EU economic interests.
The African Union’s Faki offered a sober assessment of the work ahead.
“Today, the African continent unfortunately faces security challenges mainly due to terrorism, cross-border criminality and religious integralism,” he said during his joint appearance with von der Leyen.
“There is a need — and we’re already working on it with the EU and the mobilzation of the international community — to face those challenges, which are a real threat to peace and stability in the world.”
This article has been updated.