ollowing the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union stands at a critical junction in the international scramble to establish Europe-Africa commercial corridors across the Mediterranean basin. Prior to the pandemic’s outbreak, the EU already faced a pressing strategic challenge to form a coherent policy in North Africa, which has become an arena of intense global competition over the new nexus of trade and energy transit routes as well as industrial manufacturing value chains that will connect Europe, Africa and Middle East.

During the previous decade, China became Africa’s top trade partner while Russia and Turkey massively expanded their trade relationships on the continent, witnessing rates of growth in trade that surpassed the EU by a factor of seven and five respectively.1 The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), especially Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, have similarly increased their economic engagement with Africa.