Brussels, Feb. 1, 2021 (Lusa) – The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, on Monday called for an "integrated approach" to relations with Africa, encompassing "development, security and governance".

"An integrated approach is needed: development, security and governance. And that is much more difficult to do than to arrive with goodwill, build a well or provide medicines in limited quantities, because there is always the risk of neo-colonialism," Josep Borrell said at a Robert Schuman Foundation seminar entitled, "The European Union, a global player.

Pointing out that the great challenge in relations between the EU and the African continent is to discover how to act "as a catalyst", the head of European diplomacy stressed that in the face of "the demographic dynamics of Africa", development aid "decreases 'per capita'" because there are more and more people and it becomes insufficient.

"The needs are so great that development aid will always be homeopathic. A catalytic process is needed because the resources we can put on the table will be largely insufficient", he stressed.

Borrell thus argued that it was necessary to "encourage investment and open up markets", pointing out that "we cannot close the borders to people" who want to immigrate to Europe and "close the doors to their products".

"Partnerships start by sharing what we are capable of producing with some comparative advantages. If the economic point of view is not developed, there is no security", he said.

The High Representative addressed the situation in the Sahel, stressing that the EU "will not win the war unless it wins the peace".

"If the governments of the Sahel are not seen by the people of the region as providers of public services - health, education, transport - if they are not seen as we see our governments in Europe, if they are based on security and the Army, then the door to instability will be open", he argued.

He stressed that when he "looks closely" at Africa, he wonders whether the "Europeans really realise" the "great challenge" and "opportunity" it represents for the EU.

Borrell uses the example of the European Ecological Pact to clarify his approach.

"When we talk about the Ecological Pact or say 'you have to be green', our African friends see it as a certain protectionist temptation or a luxury that Westerners can afford while they have other problems. But it's not a luxury, and if Africans, by misfortune, followed the same system of energy development as us, there would be no solutions to the climate transition," he said.

Borrell said it is necessary to help African partners "to do things differently" - which he said was more difficult than "subsidising an investment in coal" - and he stressed that, given the population growth of the African continent, "the quantitative changes the qualitative.

"Everything becomes more sophisticated and gains a larger scale. It is not the same thing to deal with a continent with a billion people or two million people," he said.

TEYA/AYLS // AYLS

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