Del Re recently visited the Grand Duchy and met with Minister of Defence François Bausch, Minister for Development Cooperation Franz Fayot, as well as representatives of the Chamber of Deputies and several NGOs. Luxembourg has an active presence in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The situation in two of these countries is currently deemed volatile.
In 2022, France and Germany decided to end their military presence in Mali. According to Del Re, the current situation makes it clear that the cooperation cannot continue as before. She called it “unacceptable” that the European Union trains soldiers who will ultimately work under the command Russian mercenaries. However, she regretted that “those in power” do not really understand this. “We must recognise that the Sahel countries are very vulnerable,” Del Re said.
“When you are vulnerable, you can make decisions. In the case of Niger, they made the right choice; in the case of Mali, they decided to embark on an adventure that they knew could be really dangerous; and these are situations that are also dependent on Russia failing to provide a clear solution,” the EU Special Representative said.
However, she noted that she believes in Mali’s civil society, which is why Del Re thinks that this humanitarian aid in particular is so important. Del Re feels that the EU should review what work it can still do in Burkina Faso following the change of government in September following a coup d’état. The message that the EU should send to the Sahel states, according to the EU Special Representative, is that the Union is a “natural partner.”
While the Sahel countries know a lot about European culture, Del Re admitted that many Europeans do not know a lot about their culture, “which is a very rich, fascinating culture.” She pointed out that “the aspiration of Sahelian society is a model like the European model, a model of society with the rule of law, the welfare state, with the possibility for the individual to fulfil themselves, to have a future, with a free youth, a youth that can make choices ,” she said, “and that is something we can give to the Sahelian countries.”
The EU will need people from these countries in the future, said Emanuela Del Re. For this reason, the EU Special Representative thinks that in addition to military and humanitarian efforts, channels for legal migration should also be opened.
“We cannot tolerate deaths in the desert and deaths in the Mediterranean now, in 2022, or in a few days in 2023. So, we really have to start creating systems for legal migration,” Del Re stressed.
The Special Representative believes that Luxembourg is doing “good work” in the Sahel region and also plays “an important role at the political level.” In Europe, discussions are often emotionally charged, but Luxembourg remains “lucid and rational,” according to Emanuela Del Re.
