Talking Points Blog highlights – Great Insights, Volume 5, Issue 6 (December 2016 / January 2017)

Hopes for a global approach to tax avoidance in 2017 Talking Points, Uzo Madu, 16 December 2016 The third and last contribution to our series of blogs ahead of the 2017 Challenges Paper is by Uzo Madu, founder of What’s in it for Africa, an online platform dedicated to EU-Africa current affairs. By looking at the steps taken by the EU and by African countries in 2016 to face tax avoidance, Uzo Madu expresses her visions and hopes for a more global approach to the issue in 2017. Donor coordination and transport in West Africa – towards people, partnership and prosperity? Talking Points, Bruce Byiers, 9 December 2016 Trade facilitation can seem a somewhat mundane topic – it’s mostly about procedures and logistics after all. But once you grasp the importance of transport costs and bottlenecks in a region like West Africa, what drives those costs and the political implications of reforms become pretty interesting. Should Europe pay to enhance military capabilities in Africa? Talking Points, Lars-Erik Lundin, 9 December 2016 The second contribution to our series of blogs ahead of the 2017 Challenges Paper is by Mr. Lars-Erik Lundin, Distinguished Associate Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Looking ahead into one of the critical debates that will shape discussions on EU external action financing in 2017, Mr. Lundin raises the question whether the European Union should provide more capacity building assistance to military actors in Africa to promote security and development, and briefly assesses the benefits and the risks involved. Development for Policy Coherence? How migration took over EU-Africa relations Talking Points, Judith Sargentini, 2 December 2016  In the first of our series of blogs ahead of ECDPM’s 2017 Challenges Paper, MEP Judith Sargentini shares her perspectives on the challenges of migration in 2017 and beyond. Traditionally, the US has been in charge of ensuring the security of the Western hemisphere, whilst the European Union had the ability to be more of an ‘ethical’ force in the world. With Trump taking over the White House and the migration ‘crisis’ taking hold over the EU’s external policies, those days are over.