The European Union has a declared policy to establish a “more effective foreign and security policy” by integrating its different policy instruments. The paper has a dual aim. The first is to show if and to what extent the declared intention of the European Union to integrate its different foreign policy instruments has actually been fulfilled in the case of its Africa policy. The second aim is to explain why or why not this development has taken place. It is the argument that the drive towards integrating the Union’s different foreign policy instruments towards Africa can be explained by referring to the old ambition of the European Community to become a significant actor on the international scene. It is assumed that the development of the CFSP and not least the ESDP is particularly crucial for fulfilling the global ambitions of the Union
