A Christmas Tale Of EU Lies

It's now so bad in the EU, that the Commission has to fabricate good news.

Ursula von der Leyen publicises scaled-down trade deal from 9 years ago as ‘news’

A full nine years ago, on 16 October 2014, the EU announced it had agreed a trade deal with the trading bloc known as the East African Community (EAC).

There’s just one small problem with this EU trade deal. It wasn’t a deal at all.

At the time the member countries were Burundi, DRC Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The EAC now comprises eight countries, with South Sudan and Somalia recently becoming members.

Talks first started years ago

What I am reporting might sound to readers like a Christmas fairy tale but here is the genuine sequence of events.

This deal has been announced by the EU several times since 2014. After the original deal with all the EAC countries failed to get ratified, talks then continued with Kenya in 2016. This ‘sub-deal’ was last announced in June this year and then yet again on Monday (18 Dec 2023), when EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen flew to Nairobi for a signing ceremony with Kenya’s President, Dr William Samoei Ruto.

The original deal with the full eight members of the EAC bloc is still on ice. Below is the EU’s putative new trade deal with Kenya, compared to the one it has with the UK.

Trade picture — EU Exports 2022

• EU’s exports to Kenya: €2.0 bn
• EU’s exports to the UK: €328.9 bn (164 times greater)

[Source: EU Commission, 18 Dec 2023.]

• EU imports from the East African Community are mainly coffee, cut flowers, tea, tobacco, fish and vegetables.
• EU exports to the EAC are dominated by machinery and mechanical appliances, equipment and parts, vehicles and pharmaceutical products.

The new deal with Kenya — still not ratified

“Kenya is a key partner for the European Union in Africa. The new Economic Partnership Agreement will boost bilateral trade even further, support investments and create good jobs in Kenya. This agreement will also contribute to sustainable and fair economic growth, bringing new opportunities for companies, to the benefit of both our people. It includes the strongest social and climate commitments of any EU trade deal with an African country.”

- Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, Nairobi, 18 Dec 2023

So, here we have a supposed EU trade deal, already announced nine years ago and several times since, announced again in June this year, announced again on Monday (18 Dec 2023) to great fanfare, and still not ratified. This process will take at least six months if indeed it happens at all.

Even if this deal does eventually get ratified it is with only one of the eight countries comprising the ‘East African Community’ which the EU originally announced nine years ago, in October 2014

Even then, the EU’s exports to the United Kingdom represent over 164 times the value of the EU’s exports to the only country of the group of eight which ostensibly wishes to participate: Kenya.

When it comes to the EU Commission’s website on trade deals, it still has the EAC deal under “Agreements being adopted or ratified” when this is not the case. It also has links to factsheets which are out of date.

Rejoiners really, need to wake up to the dysfunctional reality of the EU bureaucracy this Christmas.

Sources: EU Commission | EAC