Algeria, a valuable energy partner

The Maghreb country has huge natural gas and oil reserves but an oppressive regime. Macron’s three-day visit highlights the priorities.

The three-day visit of the French president to Algeria indicates his huge interest in the country’s rich natural gas and oil reserves. Of course, relations between the two countries have intensified recently because the French president indirectly accused the Algerian leadership of constantly reviving memories of its independence, meaning the long period of French colonialism and the crimes for which France is responsible. Following this, Algeria withdrew its ambassador to Paris, forcing Emmanuel Macron to express his “regret” for this statement.

First investments, then transactions

But Algeria is not only “precious” for France but also for all of Europe. The country is one of the largest natural gas producers in the world. Experts estimate natural gas reserves at 4 trillion cubic meters. It also has oil reserves of 1.5 billion tons. Algeria could also play a role as a transit country in the future, as shown by the plans of several African countries to build a natural gas pipeline to Europe. “Algeria has enormous potential,” points out Mathias Schaefer, representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Algiers, “but alone it cannot feed Europe, especially when countries like Italy and France are in a more advantageous position.”

But there is another obstacle, as he says. “The Algerians are very clear on this. A few weeks ago, the Algerian energy minister said in an interview with Spiegel that if someone wants to do business with us, they must first invest. In Europe, then, first of all, one must be willing to allocate significant sums in advance to create the infrastructure together with the Algerians and then benefit from it”.

Cooperation with an unfree regime;

In political terms, however, such transactions with Algeria are very dangerous, argues Maria Yoshua, an expert on the country, at the German Institute for Global and Regional Studies GIGA. “The price Europe has to pay is the stabilization of a clearly authoritarian regime. Why does it turn a blind eye to destructive domestic politics and human rights violations? The protest movement continues to be severely suppressed. There are 260 political prisoners, including representatives of peaceful protest movement and environmental activists in the country’s prisons. These individuals were convicted under terrorism legislation. For Europe, economic stability comes before human rights and those values ​​that characterize the EU.”

Does the French president see it the same way? “Yes,” writes the French magazine Le Point. “He knows that the military-business system that has ruled the country for decades does not intend to change one iota of its DNA.” However, the magazine does not believe Macron could let energy policy deals fail because of fundamental political and moral issues.

Kirsten Knipp

Editor: Irini Anastasopoulou

Source: Deutsche Welle