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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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top of this is a profound lack of job prospects for
the young people of a continent where in many
countries under-25s make up over 50 % of the
population. The migratory pressure on the EU’s
southern border is a response to that reality.
The Valetta Summit between the EU and
Africa focused on these aspects of the migra-
tory movements from Europe’s southern neigh-
bours. The idea was to attack the deep root
causes of the phenomenon and not just the mi-
grations themselves. To do so, specific plans
have begun in five pilot countries: Ethiopia,
Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. This phenom-
enon has combined with the vulnerability of
many African countries in the face of radicalisa-
tion, extremism and terrorism, from Libya and
the Sahel strip, where the Boko-Haram group
has become the most macabre example of ji-
hadi extremism, to Somalia in the Horn of
Africa.
In 2016, the fight against terrorism and the
prevention of radicalisation, support for the se-
curity sector and border management occupied
a large part of the EU’s foreign policy in the
Mediterranean and Africa. In Libya, the EU is
supporting the Government of National Accord
with 100 million euros. In Mali, EU funding re-
mains key to implementing the peace plan
signed in 2015.
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there has
been no progress on the ground, or changes in
the stance of the EU, which continues to sup-
port the two-state solution and to condemn the
settlements as “illegal and an obstacle to peace
and threatening the two-state solution”, as the
High Representative and the European Council
have recalled on several occasions. The latest
initiative in support of the two-state solution
was calling a Summit in Paris attended by all the
EU countries and the High Representative, as
well as representatives of 42 other states.
Latin American, more present in the EU’s
foreign policy, but far from the weight of the
region
The EU’s relations with Latin America have been
losing importance in the Union’s external action
since the mid-1990s. The thaw in relations be-
tween the United States and Cuba, the hope of
peace in Colombia and the ongoing tension in
Venezuela gave the region greater prominence
in European diplomacy in 2016.
The most important moment was undoubt-
edly the normalisation of the EU’s relations with
Cuba, which for 20 years had been guided by
the so-called Common Position, making institu-
tional relations conditional on democratic and
human rights advances in the island, without
having achieved any of its declared goals. On 12
December in Brussels, Federica Mogherini, the
High Representative for the EU’s foreign policy,
and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez
put their signatures to the end of that policy.
The new approach to relations revolves around
three central points: political dialogue, which
includes governance and human rights; coop-
eration, which opens the door to greater invest-
ment in development; and economic and trade
affairs, which will facilitate economic exchange
and investment from the EU, which is now the
world’s biggest investor in Cuba and its second-
biggest trade partner, behind only Venezuela.
There is every reason to believe that EU-Cuba
relations will intensify very significantly over the
next few years.
Last year was also a turning point for peace
in Colombia. The negotiations between
Colombia and the guerrilla group Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended in a
peace agreement that was put to a referendum,
and rejected, in late 2016. Despite that, both
sides – government and guerrilla – have decided