African regional integration and the role of the European Union

Summary:

African regional integration has had a remarkable new beginning since the formal beginning of the African Union (AU) in 2002. Following the Treaty of Abuja, in force since 2004 and envisaging an African Economic Community in six stages by 2028, and following the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), since 2002 a mandated initiative of the African Union including NEPAD’s unique African Peer Review Mechanism for the measuring of good governance, the African Union has become the frame for a new African regionalism.

The new beginning in African integration is impressive, promising and creative. It is not only a rhetoric operation but a substantial recognition of the need to redefine the parameters of political, socio-economic and security developments on the African continent.