Our current relations with ACP countries are governed by the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement (2000), also known as the Cotonou Agreement, which brings together more than 100 partner countries and some 1.5 billion people. It is the most comprehensive Partnership Agreement ever signed between the EU and third countries. The Council gives the Commission the mandate to negotiate these agreements and must sign the final agreement as soon as it is concluded. Also in July 2014, negotiations with the countries of the Southern African Development Community were successfully concluded. The agreement was signed on 10 June 2016 in Kasane, Botswana. It entered into provisional application on 10 October 2016. The INTERIM EPA between the EU and the Pacific ACP countries was signed by Papua New Guinea in July 2009 and by Fiji in December 2009. Papua New Guinea ratified it in May 2011. In July 2014, Fiji decided to start the provisional application of the agreement. Of the 14 Pacific countries, Papua New Guinea and Fiji account for the largest share of EU-Pacific trade. The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly is an advisory body composed equally of representatives of the EU and ACP countries. The Assembly promotes democratic processes and facilitates better understanding between the peoples of the EU and those of the ACP countries. ACP-EU development and partnership issues, including Economic Partnership Agreements, will also be addressed.
In July 2014, 16 West African States, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) concluded an agreement with the EU. The signing process is currently underway. The Cotonou Agreement offers the EU and ACP countries the opportunity to negotiate development-oriented free trade agreements, known as Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The EPAs are firmly anchored in the goals of sustainable development, human rights and development cooperation, which are at the heart of the Cotonou Agreement. Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are trade and development agreements negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and regions. In 1969, the provisions of the first Yaoundé Convention were renewed by the second Yaoundé Convention, which was in force until 1975. The EU`s trade relations with ACP countries are governed by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the EU, its Member States and acp countries, signed in 2000. While this comprehensive political, economic and development partnership expires in 2020, the parties are currently negotiating a successor agreement (the so-called post-Cotonou agreement). Our cooperation with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries has existed for a long time and has deepened over time, as evidenced by the successive ACP-EU Partnership Agreements signed since the first Lomé Convention (1975). Relations between the European Union (EU) and the ACP Group changed considerably in the 1990s. The historical links that had been the main features of previous agreements have been undermined and the importance of the ACP countries for the EU has been reduced.
In the light of the conclusion of the Single Market Programme in 1992 and the end of the Cold War, the EU turned to development issues that were a little closer to home, namely in Central and Eastern Europe. Although relations between the EU and the ACP countries have continued, they have been marked by the political developments of their time. The wave of democratization that reached many developing countries after the end of the cold war led to a hitherto unknown politicization of development cooperation. In addition, the continuing lack of the economic benefits expected from Lomé, its continued incompatibility with the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) and the complexity of the Lomé Conventions motivated the drafting of a new agreement in Cotonou, the capital of Benin. The EU has negotiated a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the 79 ACP countries. These agreements aim to create a common partnership on trade and development supported by development support. The EU finances most of its development programmes for ACP partner countries through the European Development Fund (EDF). These appropriations are not part of the general budget of the EU. They shall be the subject of an internal agreement between the Member States meeting within the Council. The application of the Cotonou Agreement has been extended until December 2020.
The agreement was originally due to expire in February 2020, but as negotiations on the future agreement are still ongoing, this has been postponed until the end of the year. The Yaoundé II Convention expired in 1974 and was replaced by a new agreement signed in Togo`s capital and bearing its name: Lomé. The creation of a new preferential trade agreement instead of a continuation of the old one was triggered both by unsatisfactory results of the previous agreement and by changes in the European political framework. From the perspective of developing countries, the demand for new negotiations was triggered by the strong neo-colonial aspects that were still evident in the Yaoundé Agreement and the disappointing economic results it had produced. From a European point of view, the development strategy moved from a regional to a more global approach with the introduction of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) in 1971. At the same time, the United Kingdom`s accession to the European Community in 1973 meant that the French-speaking orientation of development policy was rapidly shifted to the developing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. Twenty-five years of cooperation have shown that while aid allows developing countries to survive, it cannot create development. Trade, on the other hand, is a decisive factor in development. .