ABSTRACT
Contemporary political relations between the European Union (EU) and Africa are framed within two distinct, though overlapping, discourses, that of governance and of development policy, the joint effect of which is to enhance the regulatory influence of the EU on the countries of the African continent. Relations between the EU and the African continent have historical origins in the spread of colonial occupation during the latter part of the 19th century, when several European countries played out their rivalries outside the European territory. External governance promotion has been linked to tough conditionality clauses associated with institutional and political change in Eastern European countries as part of the package of accession negotiations. The review of the Lome agreements by the European Commission the mid-1980s coincided with a shift in political priorities and in development policy. The literature on European integration includes well-documented studies of the political relations and impact of integration processes and European policy-making on the individual European member states.
