The European Union is calling for a coordinated response from the 27 countries to the open crisis in Niger since the coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and has already suspended some European aid to the impoverished African country. “We should opt for a coordinated and coherent EU strategy to support Niger and other countries in the region, taking into account the current circumstances,” stress High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares , in a letter to the heads of EU diplomacy. This coordinated response should include “development assistance, security cooperation and financial support,” the text goes on to say.
“After the coup, some of you decided to stop any kind of economic, development or financial aid, while others made announcements about some financial flows, but others did not. Some have not yet announced a decision,” Borrell summarizes the current situation in his letter, to which EL PAÍS had access.
The European Union is aware that any statement can be interpreted and manipulated as interference or provocation by coup authorities who do not hesitate to level false accusations against countries like France. Therefore, the European Union is very cautious about Niger. Brussels prefers the Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao) to lead the international response to the coup, which has destabilized a country central to European interests in the Sahel.
That doesn’t mean the 27 sit idle, however. Coordination has been constant since the July 26 coup. And this coordination is being intensified in view of a key moment: the next major European diplomatic event, the informal summit of foreign ministers on August 31 in Toledo.
Niger will take over the evening session of the Toledo meeting originally scheduled to discuss the entire Sahel. The rationale is that the 27 will primarily coordinate when deciding what aid to withdraw and how to implement it, apart from other possible sanctions.
This is a key issue in a country like Niger, one of the poorest in the world: of its 25 million people, 42% live in extreme poverty and the EU estimates that more than 4.3 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, including 376,000 internally displaced persons and 255,000 refugees from Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali.
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Similarly, the head of European diplomacy and Albares – as head of the country that holds the current EU presidency this semester – are calling for “a common strategy to be defined for any possible assistance” ECOWAS may request.
Since the crisis began, the EU has underscored its decision to “support ECOWAS decisions, including the adoption of sanctions,” as Borrell said in a July 29 statement, in which he strongly condemned the military coup and warned that the EU “does not and will not recognize the rulers who emerged from the coup.”
This was reiterated this Thursday in Brussels by the spokesman for the Commission for Foreign Affairs, Peter Stano, who recalled that the 27 were waiting for what would be decided at the extraordinary session of the African body in Abuja, Nigeria. “We said from the beginning that we firmly support the decisions and measures of ECOWAS, and we will do so,” said the spokesman. He did not want to reveal whether concrete sanctions are already being discussed among the member states. He reminded that the Commission never takes a public position.
Complicated legal issues
The dizzying pace of events in Niger over the past few days makes the decision – always reversible – not to convene an extraordinary meeting and to wait for the August 31 meeting to discuss the crisis come as a surprise. However, community sources remind that decisions such as imposing sanctions on a country or members of a government or military junta, as well as an eventual cut in aid, are technically and legally complicated matters that cannot be resolved in a matter of days.
They also recall that it is not easy to decide or support an eventual military response – like the one Cedeao threatened at the time – within a few days. For that reason, they point out, the long two weeks until the Toledo meeting (considering next week is a bank holiday in Brussels and much of Europe is still on holiday) would probably definitely be necessary, be it because, the situation is accelerated and requires a more urgent response.
For the time being, the EU has suspended its budget aid, almost 300 million euros from the 503 million package approved in a program for Niger up to 2024, and all security cooperation. But it has not cut humanitarian aid and does not plan to do so, at least not for the time being, the amount of which is much smaller: 25 million euros this year, after another item of 49.7 million in 2022. The funds, the EU reminds Above all, they are intended to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable population group, including in terms of food, shelter, health, access to drinking water or education for children caught up in human crises. According to the letter, the Commission will review “other forms of cooperation” still in force with Niger, “pending a more detailed analysis” of the situation.
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