A rare show of realist analysis from the – also rarely seen – EU Council President, Herman van Rompuy, on the run-up to tomorrow’s Council meeting:

I convened Thursday’s European Council to discuss our external relations and our strategic partnerships, which we have with the United States, Russia, our Asian partners and others, based on reciprocity. Until now, we had strategic partners, now we also need a strategy!

This is indeed the case for the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) approved in 2007 and due to come under scrutiny in November’s Africa-EU summit in Libya. For a detailed analysis of its main challenges check out «What next for the Joint Africa-EU strategy?» discussion paper from ECPDM.
Judging from the boring nature of the video, a strategy may be the first thing the EU needs, but not the only one, if we are to turn around Europe’s fast dimishing profile in international relations…
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=14965045&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0
Via Europafrica.net