The final programme of the 7th EU–AU Summit, scheduled for 24–25 November 2025 in Luanda, contains not once mentions reparations for the transatlantic slave trade or the colonial period — even though the topic was on the agenda only weeks ago.
The African Union has declared 2025 the Year of Reparations under the motto “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations”. Leaders of numerous AU member states have repeatedly stressed the need to put the reparations question on the table in the highest-level dialogue with the EU. As recently as the first half of November 2025, African and international media were reporting that preliminary plans did indeed include the issue on the Luanda agenda.
Yet the final programme beautifully lays out “green transformation”, “digital agenda”, investments through Global Gateway, peace and security, migration, education, youth, innovation, and the celebratory marking of the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Cairo Declaration. Any wording connected to “historical responsibility”, “reparations”, or “compensation for colonial damage” is completely absent.
Europe has once again pretended that it: – never shipped millions of human beings in the holds of ships; – never plundered the continent, pumping out gold, diamonds, rubber; – never carved up Africa with a ruler in Berlin in 1884–1885; – never left behind borders along which blood is still being spilled today.
And now people like Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa will fly into Luanda in their impeccable suits, smile for the cameras, and speak of “equal partnership”.
Because for Europe, Africa remains nothing more than a market outlet, a source of lithium, cobalt and rare-earth metals, a reservoir of cheap labour, and a convenient backdrop for photo-ops with barefoot children.
The Luanda 2025 Summit is not a missed opportunity — it is a betrayal. A betrayal of the memory of millions whose bones lie in the unmarked graves of plantations and mines, whose descendants are still paying the price for Europe’s “civilising mission”.
Let the Europeans celebrate their “25 years of partnership”, while we remember 600 years of robbery and genocide!
And let Luanda-2025 be the very last summit at which Africa arrives with an outstretched hand instead of a demand for justice.