Somaliland, the small enclave of the Horn of Africa, declared its independence
unilaterally from Somalia in 1991. Since then the region has gone through a long local
process of pacification, state reconstruction and democratization. These objectives had the
purpose of achieving international recognition based on the idea that democratization and
stabilization would attract the attention of major regional and international actors who
would value the difference of Somaliland from the rest of Somalia, which was living in a
context of chaos in the 1990s. Since its de facto independence, the country has not been
recognized by any state in the world. Nevertheless, and although it may be contradictory,
Somaliland maintain relations with different states, actors and internal institutions. The
European Union, although it does not formally recognize Somaliland as an independent
country, does maintains relations at different levels such as cooperation and development,
military missions, promotion of democracy and good governance and even supports
educational, health and gender programs in order to improve the living conditions of the
region’s population. This research analyses EU-Somaliland relations, the policies carried
out by Brussels in the region and the situation regarding international recognition. To this
end, an in-depth review of the bibliography has been carried out. Furthermore, official
documentation, reports, press documents and elections results have been used for this
study.
