Opinion
Lessons in economic integration for the African Union
“So like the European Union at the outset we should be focusing on infrastructure and trade facilitation as key projects.”
Erwin said that in the past, Nigeria, Algeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa cooperated more closely, and big progress was made in African development. “It is this cooperation that is now most glaringly absent,” he said. “It requires diplomacy and tact since no one likes to think that the African world is going to be ruled by its giants.”
EU Ambassador to South Africa Roeland van de Geer told the Inter Press Service: “If there is anything to be learnt from European integration it is that the road to union is a bumpy one – integration does not take place in isolation, and internal as well as external factors will place obstacles along the path.”
Former South African Ambassador to the European Union, Professor Eltie Links echoed this message, telling reporters: “My caution to Africa is to not try and emulate the Europeans in every aspect of the integration path. We have the benefit of their experience over the last couple of years and especially the last few months in trying to understand fully the way to manage the vast, enlarged European Union in all of its spheres. These clearly point us to be more cautious in our own need to integrate, especially with regard to the speed and the depth of integration that we as Africans talk so easily about.”
Prof Links said that the levels of development were so different in Europe, let alone in Africa, that talking of lumping countries together in an economic or monetary union without the necessary and thorough preparation would be a grave mistake.
Former South African diplomat John Mare, who served in his country’s Brussels Embassy, suggested that a lot of the more detailed harmonization of standards and rules, which the EU has undertaken, could serve as a model for Africa.
“The African Union has much to learn from the European Union in terms of various forms of technical integration – such as getting similar standards for educational qualifications, road signs, environmental standards, food safety standards, infrastructural roll-out and so on,” he said.
