Ahead of the AU summit on 9 and 10 February, Matthias Deneckere, Lidet Tadesse Shiferaw and Sophie Desmidt wondered whether the new chairperson – South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa – can deliver on the high ambitions for peace and security on the continent.

Luckystar Miyandazi explains how this year, the African Union will likely continue to step up and try to gain more bargaining power in its partnership with the EU. The next EU-AU summit may be an opportunity for a partnership that is more clearly based on mutual benefits.

Andrew Sherriff looks at what hints the UK-EU political declaration, recent political priorities and technical documents give us of future collaboration between the UK and the EU on development and international cooperation.