The Problem

Despite decades of partnership rhetoric, the EU’s relationship with Africa and the wider Global South remains structurally unequal. Asymmetries in trade and finance constrain economic transformation; the EU’s 2024 - 2025 Pact on Migration and Asylum outsources border control to fragile and often authoritarian contexts; and African economies capture too little of the value of their own natural resources. Across the southern neighborhood, including Libya and the Sahel, Europe’s “quiet influence” too often entrenches the very dynamics it claims to address.

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Our Approach

BIC produces quantitative and qualitative analysis that surfaces these asymmetries and points to concrete reforms. Working with African, North African, and European partners, we help reimagine development finance, trade integration, and migration policy, and elevate African organizations and the African Union as full agenda-setters in multilateral institutions.

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Key Objectives

- Reimagine EU development aid and financial flows to support African-led economic transformation.

- Advance trade reform and regional integration that let Africa capture more of the natural-resource value chain.

- Critically examine implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, including its externalization to North Africa and the Sahel and its consequences for sovereignty, security, and human rights beyond Europe’s borders.

- Convene leaders to rethink jobs, mobility, and migration as a shared opportunity for African and European youth.