The European Union and Regional Integration in East Africa
Collective and Individual State Priorities Compared

Book Description

This book examines European countries’ engagement in promoting regional integration in the East African Community (EAC). In addition to their usage of the European Union (EU), states employ other bilateral initiatives to channel their regional aid to the EAC. To analyse why states behave in this way, the book describes various national interests that explain how they decided to engage with the EAC, both multilaterally via the EU and through their other bilateral channels. Doing so via the EU, states can pursue common European interests, whereas via other bilateral initiatives, they can secure their national preferences towards the EAC. In addition to analysing states’ interests, the book goes further to examine how lack of coordination of those European initiatives cause various challenges in the EAC. It is shown how the EAC bureaucrats have to engage separately with the EU and its member states in their different channels, thus experiencing challenges in different stages of their aid project cycles, for instance in identification, implementation and reporting phases. The book might be of interest to researches and practitioners focusing on the topics of European promotion of regional integration, development aid, African and European regional integration processes, as well as foreign policy analysis.