EU-AU Summit 2022: The EU wants to be Africa's friend in need-and indeed.

Were it not for the current Ukraine crisis, the Sixth European Union-African Union Summit held in Brussels from 17-18 February would likely still be on the front burner of geopolitical conversations.

The much-hyped relations reset event lived up to its billing: 40 African leaders were in Brussels; a mix of pomp and substantive outcomes defined the summit where both regions pursued intersecting and sometimes divergent interests.

The implicit backdrop was China's rising influence in Africa, and countries such as the USA, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Germany are strengthening bilateral engagements.

Key takeaways

Co-chaired by the AU Chairperson and Senegalese President Macky Sall and President of the European Council Charles Michel, key takeaways for Africa included a pledge of pound 150 billion ($168 billion) investment package targeting the energy, transport, digital infrastructure, health and education sectors.

The amount would be spread over the next seven years, translating to about $24 billion per year-a significant outlay considering the EU's current Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa totals about $250 billion.

The investment package is an offshoot of the EU's pound 300 billion ($336 billion) Global Gateway programme launched in 2021, rivalling China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is already financing critical infrastructure in various countries on the continent.

Increasing Africa's access to Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) - a basket of billions of dollars of the world's leading currencies held by the IMF- gained currency at the summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron and President Sall had set a target of the release of $100 billion unused SDRs to boost liquidity in African countries during the Summit on Financing African Economies held in Paris in May 2021. In Brussels, the feeling was that EU member states could do more than the $13 billion pledged already.

The EU also committed to increasing its COVID-19 vaccine donation to Africa from less than 150 million doses currently to 450 million doses by mid-2022, in addition to mobilizing pound 425 million ($465 million) to support vaccine distribution and to train medical teams.

IP waiver

On the flip side, African leaders could not convince the EU in Brussels to waive intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines to enable Africa to produce its own jabs and save more lives.

Africans and many others, including the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as the...