The EU-South Africa strategic partnership: waning affection, persisting economic interests

Grimm, Sven / Christine Hackenesch
Externe Publikationen (2017)

in: South African Journal of International Affairs (forthcoming)

Ten years after the coming into force of the EU-South Africa Strategic Partnership, this article takes stock of this partnership. Our aim, within this special issue, is to assess the EU’s perspective on its strategic partnership with South Africa, and in particular to look at economic and development cooperation within the partnership and to what extent European expectations of closer engagement have been met. Our analysis shows that economic interests have remained central to bilateral relations and the strategic partnership, even if some potential for economic engagement has remained unexploited. At the same time, the relationship has been quite tense in recent years, as bilateral ‘affection’ at the political level has waned. The implications for the partnership are weighed.