It’s Africa’s Turn to Leave the European UnionOn Jan. 31, Britain left the European Union, bringing to an end nearly three years of tortured, all-consuming negotiations. Modeled to a fault on European Union institutions, the AU remains both overly centralized and lacking in capacity and accountability. In 2018, the African Union adopted the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the largest trade agreement concluded since the World Trade Organization in 1995. Not long ago, the European Union struggled with “reconciling its strategic interests with its value-driven agenda,” as a European Centre for Development Policy Management paper noted in 2012. The African Union will either step forward or backward on Leap Day, when the Cotonou agreement runs out.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 10, 2020 21:45 UTC