Eurafrica

In the decades before World War II, German supporters of European integration advocated a merger of African colonies as a first step towards a federal Europe.

[1] As a genuine political project, it played a crucial role in the early development of the European Union[2] but was largely forgotten afterwards.

In the context of a renewed EU Strategy for Africa, and controversies about a Euromediterranean Partnership, the term has gone through a revival of sorts in recent years.

His Paneuropean Union saw a Eurafrican alliance using the European colonies as a "dowry"[7] as important base of Europe's ability to found a third pillar against the Americas and Asia.

[8][9] Coudenhove-Kalergis' belief had racial undertones as he claimed that Eurafrika would combine European high culture and African "primitive" vitalism to benefit both continents.

[11] The partnership discourse grew from a mere political and economic exchange to an enhanced relevance attached to the sphere of emotions and sexuality in the interwar period.

[13] Senghors Élégie pour la Reine de Saba, published in his Élégies majeures in 1976 uses the Queen of Sheba legend as a love poem and a political message.

[14] The Revolutions of 1989 in the Eastern Bloc led to unforeseen changes and also overtook - albeit temporarily - the traditional interest in closer European-African co-operation.

In 2009, a German Christian Democratic think tank, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, noting the lack of a level playing field on political and economic issues, tried to focus on the future spiritual and cultural perspectives of Eurafrica instead.

[16][17]It is in the interest of the whole free world that the [colonial] territories, which form part of it, should endeavor to speed up and increase the production of scarce material The Hague Congress (1948) laid the foundation of the Council of Europe 1949.

The failure of the strongest remaining European colonial powers, Britain and France, in the Suez crisis 1956 was a major shock.

Attempts in the early 1950s to construct a “Belgo-Congolese community” along Antoine van Bilsen's proposal[23] or based on local Catholics' idea of a Conscience Africaine, both including a gradual emancipation of the Congo, failed completely.

France was well aware that the Algerian Departments were not viable under the conditions of the Common Market and gained some exemption clauses in the Treaty of Rome.

[33] Eurafrica subsequently played an important role in forging the European union and associated treaties, as at the Yaoundé Conventions in 1958 and later.

Western Germany however traded an improvement of its own political standing - after tough negotiations between Adenauer and de Gaulle - with the French colonial attempts and agreed to provide substantially to the European Development Fund.

I call on all those who can do so to join the Mediterranean Union because it will be the linchpin of Eurafrica, the great dream capable of enthusing the world[42]Sarkozy's approach was interpreted as somewhat patronising,[13] and his grand strategy ultimately failed, due to a lack of interest from the various participants who were required.