EGMONT POLICY BRIEF 363 The Politics behind the EU-Rwanda Deal(s) and its Consequences

in the country.1 Second, the European Commission – and particularly the European External Action Service (EEAS) It is a question which puzzles many: why does the administration in Brussels – wanted to push through the EU want to award €20 million to the Rwandan army, dossier: although EEAS was internally politically divided, in the midst of its violations of international law in there was bureaucr. [...] In the end, an agreement was reached in the relevant The question is of course the extent to which this body – the Africa Working Party of the European Council debate over the content of the support matters: the – which is responsible for the management of EU external military financing of a government whose army violates policy towards sub-Saharan Africa. [...] THE REACTION IN THE DRC This does not mean that the deal is approved: it still needs to pass through the Committee of Permanent In the DRC, the potential deal is met with much anger. [...] By putting all blame on Rwanda, over the past years with EU diplomats and analysts in and the Western support towards it, the government the region, one name keeps being mentioned: Maud can deflect from its own weaknesses – such as the Arnould, who works at the – now outgoing – cabinet of shortcomings of the army in addressing the M23 conflict EU High Representative Joseph Borrell, as the expert o. [...] While the DRC government has remained relatively pragmatic in its reactions to these past deals, all of this does not mean that the EU is popular in the DRC: the EU – or at least the EU administration in Brussels – is not playing a particularly clever political game in the DRC.