South Africa–European Union relations

The European Union (EU) has strong cultural and historical links to South Africa (particularly through immigration from the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, France, and Greece) and the EU is South Africa's biggest investor.^[1]

Comparison table

	European Union	South Africa
Population	447,706,209	58,775,022
Area	4,475,757 km2 (1,728,099 sq mi)	1,221,037 km2 (471,445 sq mi)
Population Density	117.2/km2 (303.5/sq mi)	42.4/km2 (109.8/sq mi)
Capital	Brussels	Pretoria
Government	Supranational and intergovernmental union	Unitary dominant-party parliamentary constitutional republic
Current leader	Council President Charles Michel Commission President Ursula von der Leyen	President Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President David Mabuza
Official Languages	24 official languages, of which 3 considered "procedural" (English, French and German)^[2]	11 official languages, English, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu
Main Religions	71.6% Christian 45.3% Roman Catholic 11.1% Protestant 9.6% Eastern Orthodox 5.6% other Christian 24% No religion 1.8% Muslim 2.6% other faiths^[3]
Ethnic Groups	Germans (ca. 80 million), French (ca. 67 million), Italians (ca. 60 million), Spanish (ca. 47 million), Poles (ca. 46 million), Romanians (ca. 16 million), Dutch (ca. 13 million), Greeks (ca. 11 million), Portuguese (ca. 11 million),	80.7% Black African, 8.8% Coloured, 7.9% White, 2.6% Asian
GDP (nominal)	$16.477 trillion, $31,801 per capita	$369.854 billion, $6,193 per capita

Agreements

Since the end of South Africa's apartheid, EU South African relations have flourished and they began a "Strategic Partnership" in 2007. In 1999 the two sides signed a Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement (TDCA) which entered into force in 2004, with some provisions being applied from 2000. The TDCA covered a wide range of issues from political cooperation, development and the establishment of a free trade area (FTA).^[1] The liberalisation schedules were completed by 2012.^[4] Since the signing of the Agreement, trade in goods between the two partners has increased by more than 120%, and foreign direct investment has grown five-fold.^[4]

Trade

South Africa is the EU's largest trading partner in Southern Africa and has a FTA with the EU. South Africa's main exports to the EU are fuels and mining products (27%), machinery and transport equipment (18%) and other semi-manufactured goods (16%). However they are growing and becoming more diverse. European exports to South Africa are primarily machinery & transport equipment (50%), chemicals (15%) and other semi-machinery (10%).^[4]

EU – South Africa trade in 2013^[4]
Direction of trade	Goods	Services	Investment stocks
EU to South Africa	€24.5 billion	€7.2 billion	€41.8 billion
South Africa to EU	€15.6 billion	€4.5 billion	€7.7 billion