Europe’s future depends on the energy choices it makes today. Can Europe secure cleaner, more affordable and more reliable energy, and build the infrastructure its industries need, to face a more turbulent world? Join leading policymakers, business representatives and experts for the debate, and put your questions to them
Secure, sovereign, competitive – that is the ambition for a Europe able to withstand the geopolitical and economic turmoil of the current moment. A Europe that can deliver on this ambition will need abundant energy to power its future, foundational industry that is able to innovate, and diversified supply chains that ensure resilience. …
At a moment when rising oil prices and continued supply disruptions are raising the stakes of reliance on fossil fuels, decarbonising the global shipping industry is about more than curbing emissions—it is also about strategic diversification as geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions grow. The Net-Zero Framework (NZF) presents the strongest maritime decarbonisation proposal, designed to drive switching to low-emission fuels while also ensuring a predictable stream of revenues…
Recent coordinated attacks by jihadist and separatist groups in Mali, unprecedented in their scale and coordination, have placed the state’s security apparatus under strain and reinforced concerns over instability across the wider region, despite the reconfiguration of Bamako’s external partnerships. More broadly, the Sahel and West Africa are facing a complex set of…
Russia has made significant inroads in Africa—particularly in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic and Mali—deploying military operations that, while limited in scope, are often devastating for local civilian populations. At the same time, Moscow has developed a powerful propaganda machine that taps into existing antipathy towards Europe, particularly France, to push African governments…
Join us for a timely webinar exploring insights from ECFR’s policy brief, “Long walk to realism: Climate cooperation to reset EU-South Africa relations.” The discussion will reflect on South Africa’s G20 presidency and recent global gatherings—including the AU-EU Summit in Angola and COP30 in Brazil—to assess how the EU and South Africa…
In 2025, Angola has gained increased visibility on the global stage through its presidency of the African Union and hosting the US-Africa Business Summit as well as the 7th AU–EU Summit in Luanda last month. Despite internal challenges, such as inequality and weak institutional capacity, the country has managed to position itself as an aspiring middle power…
At the seventh Berlin Climate and Security Conference, hosted by the German Federal Foreign Office in cooperation with adelphi, ECFR Africa chaired a breakout session on the strategic importance of minerals and Africa’s role amid geopolitical turmoil. As the global race for clean technologies intensifies – spanning energy, defense and digital sectors…
Europe has positioned its high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards as central to its global partnerships, particularly in efforts to develop sustainable critical raw materials (CRM) value chains with mineral-rich African countries such as Namibia, Zambia, the DRC, and Rwanda. With Africa home to around a third of the world’s known mineral reserves,…
A decade of military, humanitarian, and developmental European interventions in the Sahelian states of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have failed comprehensively. Yet, European governments must accept that engagement, however ugly, is their only hope of advancing their strategic priority of a stable Sahel region. In this event, ECFR Africa reflects on recent developments…
Amid global geopolitical tensions, the EU has been ramping up efforts to diversify its mineral value chains by forging strategic partnerships with resource-rich African nations. Since 2022, the EU has finalised agreements with Namibia, DRC, Zambia and Rwanda, and has established a multistakeholder partnership to develop the Lobito corridor. These partnerships are designed to…
Policy and research circles are increasingly interested in Gulf monarchies’ expanding footprint in Africa, though the challenges and opportunities of the deepening Gulf-Africa relations for global geopolitics are yet to be fully understood. Building on the findings and ideas of the recent policy brief, Beyond competition: How Europe can harness the…