EU 'Aid' Takes Transactional Turn: Colonialism Rebranded for Green Transition
The Financial Times reports the EU's foreign aid is pivoting to secure critical minerals from Africa, cloaking resource extraction in the language of 'strategic partnerships' and 'green transition' investments. Brussels is now explicitly linking aid to supply chains, effectively formalizing a 'you scratch our backs (with cobalt), we'll scratch yours (with infrastructure you'll eventually pay for)'
approach. Let’s be clear: this isn't an innovation. It's the same old resource grab dressed in new, supposedly ethical, jargon. From the Berlin Conference of 1884 to today's 'critical raw materials alliances,' Africa's wealth has always been viewed through a transactional lens by European powers. Now, instead of direct colonial administration, the EU simply leverages aid budgets, effectively using
humanitarian funds as a down payment for mineral rights. It appears the 'aid' is aiding Brussels' industrial needs more than African self-determination.