Building the African Union: An assessment of past progress and future prospects for the African Union's institutional architecture

As a pan African institution, the AU has made substantial progress in taking stronger lead in the integration of the African continent and in global fora. However, it still has a long way to go before it can claim to be both effective and influential. The authors present a list of concrete action points for strengthening the AU and its institutions. The final part of the paper contains a analysis of the role of the EU could play in supporting the AU's institutional development. A great deal of progress has been made in recent years in terms of broadening and deepening AU-EU relations, for example with formulation of the joint Africa-EU strategy (JAES). However, there is an urgent need to strengthen the political foundations of the partnership between the EU and Africa by addressing delicate issues of common concern and interest. The upcoming EU-Africa summit (November 2010) and the new EU external action framework created by the Lisbon Treaty provide unique Opportunities for moving forward in this respect.