The Acp Group And The Eu Development Partnership

This book constitutes a systematic and critical assessment of the nature, evolution, and prospects of the development partnership between the 79-member African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group of states and the 28-member European Union (EU). A core theme that runs through the work is that the ACP’s partnership with the EU remains an important framework for addressing development challenges in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific regions, but needs to adapt to changes in the global political economy, as well as internal developments in both the ACP and the EU, to sustain its relevance and effectiveness. This is crucial for the ACP group, in particular, given its origins in, and core focus on, development cooperation with Europe. The authors in this volume examine the history of the ACP-EU partnership since 1975; the EU’s relationship with the African, Caribbean, and Pacific regions individually; ACP experiences with economic partnership agreements with the EU; and new political issues, in particular, security, migration, and diasporas. Shedding light on the future prospects of this relationship, this book will be of interest to both scholars and policymakers working on the ACP-EU relationship and related development issues, including trade, aid, security, and migration.

Starting from the observation that the establishment of free trade as such will substantially impact upon economic development, the different contributions focus on the potential contribution of non-traditional aspects of EPAs.

Authors from different backgrounds (including law, political science and economics) analyze the forces that gave rise to the new agreement as well as the negotiating process of the new agreement, and the negotiations that are taking place to produce the planned Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) that are to replace the existing non-reciprocal trade preferences that are incompatible with WTO law.

This book addresses the fundamental issues of human rights, gender, immigration, and the role of non-governmental organizations as providers of services in European Union development cooperation policy. It investigates the questions of the role of the free market and the future of Lome Convention.

Trade is key to development. In order for any nation to develop, pathways to trade need to be favorable. The EEC's and then the EU's development cooperation policies have historically supported favorable trade agreements with Africa. From Yaoundé through Lomé 4 bis, elements such as the non-reciprocal nature of trade conditions, the European Development Fund (EDF), STABEX and SYSMIN illustrated the special status Europe1 accorded to Africa and then later the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). The Cotonou era is a new challenge for the ACP and especially Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Though the EU still holds the rhetoric of favoring development, striving for greater partnerships and empowering nations, in actual fact, this new construct and its Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) show that the EU stance on the status of the ACP nations has drifted.

The European Union has been one of the most vocal advocates of ‘sustainable development’, particularly in its dealings with developing countries. Even prior to the formulation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the EU has insisted upon the need for sustainable approaches to poverty reduction and economic growth in the Global South. When examining EU relations with African countries as part of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, however, it becomes clear that the translation of Europe’s sustainability discourse into practice is highly problematic. Notably, there are concerns that the EU’s free market approach to development – embodied in its EPA trade deals – is incompatible with genuine, pro-poor forms of sustainable growth. Moreover, the EU is often seen as a hegemonic actor whose trade and aid interventions in Africa often do more to perpetuate poverty than to ameliorate it. This book casts a critical light on Africa-EU relations with regards to the EU’s sustainability pledges. It does this through looking at an array of issues – not least trade, aid, the environment, and democratic institutions. In this vein, the book poses a challenge to EU trade and development discourse in the era of the UN SDGs. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal.

By early 2000, a new trade agreement must be negotiated between the 72 countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union, to replace Lome IV. This volume features: a commentary on the EU's proposals for the new trade arrangements.