From Aiding to Equal Partnership between the EU and African Countries: the Case of Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict

Abstract

This article mainly introduces the current situation of the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia and the EU's assistance to Ethiopia as well as the dialectical thinking on the EU's approach. In the first part, the author gives a brief history of Ethiopia to explain the relationship between the Tigray People's Liberation Front(TPLF)and the federal government. In this part, the article also narrates the general situation of Tigray War. At the same time, in order to further explain the reasons for the outbreak of the conflict in Tigray, the second part introduces the economic and ethnic issues behind the outbreak of the conflict. In the last part, this paper introduces the EU's foreign policy and aid situation to Ethiopia, from the overall overview to the political and aid situation after the outbreak of the conflict in Tigray. At the end of this part, this paper proposes ways forward for the EU's future relations with Ethiopia. At the same time, this paper applies the concept of “Normative Power Europe” (NPE) to dialectically analyze whether the European Union has really changed Ethiopia from a recipient country to an equal relationship. At the same time, how should the EU incorporate the concept of equal foreign relations with Ethiopia into its response to the Tigray conflict. In this paper, the author critically analyzes the existing behaviors of the EU, to what extent they can exert “normative pressure” on Ethiopia, and analyzes whether these behaviors are conducive to changing the political norms and national stability in Ethiopia, and gives suggestions on how the EU should deal with the relationship with Ethiopia in the future.