EU/ACP Länder

Brus­sels, 19 March 2010

A min­is­te­r­i­al meet­ing on the revi­sion of the ACP-EU part­ner­ship agree­ment will take place on Fri­day 19 March in Brus­sels at 11.00, chaired by Ms. Soraya Rodríguez, Span­ish sec­re­tary of state for inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion and by Mr. Paul Bun­duku-Latha, deputy min­is­ter for econ­o­my, trade, indus­try and tourism of Gabon. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of 27 EU mem­ber states and 78 ACP states are due to par­tic­i­pate, along­side the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion and the sec­re­tari­at of the ACP group.

The meet­ing will finalise the sec­ond revi­sion of the Coto­nou Agree­ment, launched on 29 May 2009. The accord con­sti­tutes the foun­da­tion for the spe­cial rela­tion­ship between the EU and 78 African, Caribbean and Pacif­ic coun­tries. The for­mal adop­tion of the revised accord is planned for the next ACP-EU min­is­te­r­i­al Coun­cil in Ougadougou, Burk­i­na Faso, in June.

The part­ner­ship agree­ment is aimed at reduc­ing and even­tu­al­ly erad­i­cat­ing pover­ty as well as at sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and the grad­ual inte­gra­tion of ACP coun­tries into the world econ­o­my. The part­ner­ship is based on three pil­lars: devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion, eco­nom­ic and trade coop­er­a­tion and the polit­i­cal dimension.

The Euro­pean Devel­op­ment Fund (EDF) is the main instru­ment for devel­op­ment aid to ACP states, with the 10th EDF pro­vid­ing for EUR 22.7bn in the peri­od 2008–2013. In addi­tion, ACP coun­tries ben­e­fit from inter­ven­tions of the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank and of the EU devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion instru­ment. The agree­ment also pro­vides for a polit­i­cal dia­logue between the EU and ACP states on the basis of human rights, demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples and respect for the rule of law. The sec­ond revi­sion of the Coto­nou Agree­ment is due to rein­force pro­vi­sions against the pro­lif­er­a­tion of small arms and light weapons and against new secu­ri­ty threats, such as organ­ised crime and traf­fick­ing of peo­ple, drugs and weapons.

As part of the review, coop­er­a­tion in the area of migra­tion could be strength­ened. This includes work on issues like remit­tances and brain drain as well as on legal and ille­gal migra­tion, e.g. smug­gling and traf­fick­ing of human beings, bor­der man­age­ment and read­mis­sion. Nego­ti­a­tions for a rel­e­vant appen­dix to the accord will con­tin­ue and could be con­clud­ed in autumn. 

In addi­tion, the review will:
− strength­en pos­si­bil­i­ties to sup­port the devel­op­ment of aqua­cul­ture and fish­eries sec­tors in ACP states;
− pro­mote sup­port to ACP coun­tries for scal­ing up the fight against the HIV/AIDS pan­dem­ic;
− improve oppor­tu­ni­ties to assist ACP states in adapt­ing to glob­al warm­ing and in inte­grat­ing cli­mate change into their devel­op­ment strate­gies;
− accel­er­ate work towards mutu­al recog­ni­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion qual­i­fi­ca­tions;
− rein­force region­al coop­er­a­tion with­in the ACP group. 

A joint dec­la­ra­tion on devel­op­ment assis­tance after the expiry of the 10th EDF is also due to be adopted.

The ACP-EU part­ner­ship agree­ment was signed on 23 June 2000 in Coto­nou, Benin. It was con­clud­ed for a peri­od of 20 years and pro­vides for reviews every five years; the first revi­sion was signed in Lux­em­bourg in 2005. The accord replaced four suc­ces­sive Lomé con­ven­tions that had con­sti­tut­ed the basis of trade rela­tions with and devel­op­ment aid to ACP states since 1975. The ACP group com­pris­es 48 coun­tries from sub-Saha­ran Africa, 15 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacif­ic:
Ango­la — Antigua and Bar­bu­da — Belize — Cape Verde — Comoros — Bahamas — Bar­ba­dos — Benin — Botswana — Burk­i­na Faso — Burun­di — Cameroon — Cen­tral African Repub­lic — Chad — Con­go (Braz­zav­ille) — Con­go (Kin­shasa) — Cook Islands — Ivory Coast — Cuba — Dji­bouti — Domini­ca — Domini­can Repub­lic — Eritrea — Ethiopia — Fiji — Gabon — Gam­bia — Ghana — Grena­da — Repub­lic of Guinea — Guinea-Bis­sau — Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea — Guyana — Haiti — Jamaica — Kenya — Kiri­bati — Lesotho — Liberia — Mada­gas­car — Malawi — Mali — Mar­shall Islands — Mau­ri­ta­nia — Mau­ri­tius — Microne­sia — Mozam­bique — Namib­ia — Nau­ru — Niger — Nige­ria — Niue — Palau — Papua New Guinea — Rwan­da — St. Kitts and Nevis — St. Lucia — St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines — Solomon Islands — Samoa — Sao Tome and Principe — Sene­gal — Sey­chelles — Sier­ra Leone — Soma­lia — South Africa — Sudan — Suri­name — Swazi­land — Tan­za­nia — Tim­or Leste — Togo — Ton­ga — Trinidad and Toba­go — Tuvalu — Ugan­da — Van­u­atu — Zam­bia — Zimbabwe 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union