Europe, Africa and Asia: What Partnership Dynamics after 2021? (French)

November 27, 2020

The Policy Center for the New South is hosting a joint webinar in partnership with the ASEANplus Platform of the Ghent University under the theme “Europe, Africa and Asia: What Partnership Dynamics after 2021?”. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the effects of globalization and deficiencies resulting from the absence of a clear vision and a coherent action on the geopolitical projection of the European Union (EU). This issue is also at the very heart of the new European Commission (2019-2023). What is notably at stake is the ‘future of Europe’ but also the development of new partnership dynamics between Europe, Africa and Asia. The final weeks of 2020 and the first months of 2021 are crucial in this respect, as most of the instruments and frameworks of partnership between the EU and Africa will be (re)defined, whereas those existing between the EU and Asia are being re-assessed in the light of the current developments. Morocco's pioneering role in its advanced relationships with the EU makes is an important case study as is Thailand within the ASEAN. Which main geo-political, geo-economic and legal constraints and which new partnership dynamics between Europe, Africa and Asia can we expect for the next decade? What is the potential for developing new synergies and ‘partnership triangulations’ across the three continents? These are research questions that can only be answered through a multidisciplinary and prospective reflection. Against this background, this half-day online conference will address challenges, opportunities and perspectives of partnership dynamics after 2020 through 3 sessions: a first session on issues of geopolitics and triangular dynamics between Europe, Africa and Asia; a second session on partnership instruments, investments, regional and sectoral strategies and a third session on the potential for triangular cooperation and mutual Europe-Africa-Asia learning.

Speakers
Peter Bossier
Academic Chair, ASEANplus Regional Platform - Ghent University
...
Karim El Aynaoui
Executive President
Karim El Aynaoui is Executive President of the Policy Center for the New South. He is also Executive Vice-President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Dean of its Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences Cluster.   Karim El Aynaoui is an economist. From 2005 to 2012, he worked at the Central Bank of Morocco where he held the position of Director of Economics, Statistics, and International Relations. At the Central Bank of Morocco, he was in charge of the Research Department and equally a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. Previously, he worked for eight years at the World Bank as an Economist for its regional units of the Middle East and North Africa and Africa.   Karim El Aynaoui has published books and journal articles on macroeconomic issues in developing countr ...
Erwan Lannon
Professor, Faculty of Criminology and Law, Ghent University
...
Iván Martín
Senior Fellow
Iván Martín is Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Governance, Economic and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), and Associate Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Immigration (GRITIM) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Between 2013 and 2016 he was Part-time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) of the European University Institute in Florence, as well as member of the Expert Group on Economic Migration of the European Commission and Key Expert on Labour Migration providing External Technical Expertise on Migration to DG DEVCO of the European Commission (ETEM V Project). Formerly, he has been Senior Research Fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International A ...
Bruno Jetin
Director of the Institute of Asian Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam
...
Len Ishmael
Senior Fellow
Ambassador, Dr. Len Ishmael is a Senior Fellow of the Policy Center for the New South and a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is the Global Affairs Advisor of the Brussels Diplomatic Academy and visiting Professor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Mohammed 6 University, Morocco. Dr. Ishmael is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on COVID-19’s Regional Task Force for Latin America. She is the former Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Belgium and European Union, and past President of the 79-member African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former Director & Head of the Regional Headquarters of the United Nations Economic ...
Kidane Kiros
Senior Fellow
Dr. Kidane Kiros Bitsue is currently Professor-Researcher at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University’s Faculty of Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences and Senior Fellow at Policy Centre for the New South. He holds a PhD degree in Development Studies. Prior to joining Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Dr Kidane served as the Director of the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University (AAU) from March 2014 – June 2019. In his capacity as the Director of IPSS, he had directed the successful conduct of six (6) annual conferences of Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa that took place from 2014 – 2019. As a result of efforts done under his directorship in the areas of academic, research and outreach activities; IPSS had been rated among the t ...
Nisit Panthamit
Director of the Center for ASEAN Studies, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
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Jean Dhont
Coordinator, ASEANplus Regional Platform - Ghent University
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Larabi Jaïdi
Senior Fellow
Larabi Jaïdi is a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South and an Affiliate Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. His areas of expertise include international economy, economic policies, international economic relations, regional economies, social development, international relations, and Mediterranean studies. He also served on the Special Commission on the New Development Model of Morocco, a consultative body created in November 2019 to formulate the country's new developmental guidelines. Jaïdi is a former Professor at Mohamed V University in Rabat-Agdal and a founding member of both the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture and the Groupement d’Etudes et de Recherches sur la Méditerranée.   Prof. Jaïdi previously served as Advisor to the Prime Minister an ...
Mouhamadou Moustapha Ly
Economist, African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Currently economist within the African Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, where he works on East African economies on various macroeconomic policy subjects and surveillance, he is also an affiliate professor of economics at Mohamed-6 Polytechnic university in Rabat (Morocco). Prior to that, Mouhamadou was senior economist at the Policy Center for the New South in Rabat (Morocco) working on development related issues and regional integration in the African continent. Mouhamadou also spent several years as assistant professor at Gaston Berger university in Saint-Louis (Senegal) and a lecturer at Auvergne university (France) and City university (London). He also worked as research fellow at the African Center for Statistics in the United Nations Econo ...

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