European Union energy officials met with representatives from Africa and the Middle East on November 1 to discuss energy security and access. The conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, tips off the bloc’s interest in securing the region as Europe’s resource mine.

The European Commission said the conference included discussions on bolstering regional energy security, climate change and access to energy services.

“When the EU thinks of energy security, it looks not only east but also south. We are determined to expand our network of energy partners by building on bilateral partnerships and regional initiatives,” Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the commissioner for external relations, said.

“Egypt can play a key role as a bridge between our energy partners in Africa and the Middle East,” she added.

The European Commission called stronger ties with Africa and the Middle East a “priority” for the Union.

This strategizing falls in line with the EC’s declared target of acquiring “sustainable, competitive and secure” energy resources, released in its green paper in March 2006.

According to that report, Europe depends on imports for half of its energy.

For years, the Trumpet and its predecessor, the Plain Truth, have highlighted the importance of the German-led European Union’s interest in the struggling Third World continent of Africa. In the late 1800s, Germany attempted to boot Britain out, replacing it with its own Mittel-Afrika, spanning from Kenya to the Gold Coast (Ghana) and southwest Africa to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The result would have catapulted Germany to equal footing with the powerful British Empire in many ways.

Germany’s designs for Africa continued following World War i and into World War ii with Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s Deutsches Afrika Korps.

Following Germany’s Second World War defeat, Nazi planners turned to economic and political warfare as the means to secure African and Middle Eastern resources. The September 1966 Plain Truth highlighted a 1951 Nazi manuscript: “This startling document lays bare plans for a powerful, united, German-led Europe with Africa as its raw materials storehouse.”

The document itself specifically required “the unification of Europe as quickly as possible,” first by economic means. “Political propaganda must be carried out cleverly, and the unification of Europe must not appear as an enterprise holding out particular attraction for German interests,” the Nazi document stated.

Germany’s plans for Africa and the Middle East have not been scrapped. Watch for Germany and the EU to strengthen ties with these conflicted regions, specifically in the areas of energy and raw materials, and not for humanitarian purposes. For more on this subject, read “Pillaging Africa” in the November/December issue of the Trumpet.