3. EU Relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries

Introduction

Europe and Africa are connected by strong trade links, making the EU the biggest export market for African products (approximately 85 percent of Africa’s exports of cotton, fruit and vegetables are imported by the EU). Europe and Africa are also bound by substantial aid flows. In 2003 the EU’s development aid to Africa totaled €15 billion, compared to €5 billion in 1985. With this, the EU is by far the biggest donor: its official development assistance (ODA) accounts for 60 percent of the total ODA going to Africa.

Africaremains high on the EU's foreign policy agenda, with dialogue increasingly going beyond the confines of traditional development issues, agencies and officials. However, Africa is still too frequently thought of and addressed as a "development issue". There is a need to enhance the mobilization of political engagement and financial resources from stakeholders outside the development community.

Historical overview

The notion of "ACP states"goes back to the "ACP group of states", established in 1975 with the Georgetown agreement. It was initially signed by 46 African, Caribbean and Pacific states. Today, the ACP group  counts 79 countries, 78 of them signatories of the Cotonou-Agreement (with Cuba being the exception). South Africa is a contracting party, but not all the provisions apply to the co-operation between South Africa and the EC.

Support to sub-Saharan Africa took a more structured approach through successive Yaoundé Conventions (1963 - 1975). The UK’s accession broadened the geographic scope of the partnership to African, Caribbean and Pacific Commonwealth countries. From 1975 until 2000 the ACP-EC relations were governed by the regularly adapted and updated Lomé Conventions.

Against an intensive public debate, talks began in September 1998 for a comprehensive revision of the ACP-EC relations. These were successfully concluded in 2000, leading to the Cotonou Agreement.  

In 2000, the first EU-Africa Summit took place in Cairo addressing political and economic issues. The summit resulted in the Declaration of Cairo and a joint EU-Africa Cairo plan of action, both addressing the issues of development, trade, debt, political issues, peace building and conflict prevention. 

The second EU-Africa summit, held in 2007 in Lisbon, emphasized the need to develop a partnership of equals, based on the effective engagement of our societies, in order to achieve significant results in our fundamental commitments, namely: the attainment of the MDGs; the establishment of a robust peace and security architecture in Africa; the strengthening of investment, growth and prosperity through regional integration and closer economic ties; the promotion of good governance and human rights; and the creation of opportunities for shaping global governance in an open and multilateral framework. The Lisbon Summit also laid down its intentions in a “Lisbon Declaration” of the EU-Africa Summit and in an ambitious long-term Africa-EU Strategic Partnership: Joint Africa-EU Strategy and Action Plan that confirms their willingness to deepen their political relationship and to address global challenges.  

Economic partnerships and the Cotonou agreement

The ACP-EU Partnership Agreement was signed in Cotonou in 2000 and concluded for a period of 20 years.  It is centered on the objective of reducing and eventually eradicating poverty in line with the objectives of sustainable development and the gradual integration of the ACP countries into the world economy. The Agreement is designed to establish a comprehensive partnership, based on three complementary pillars:   

• development co-operation,

• economic and trade co-operation,

• political dimension.

To enhance the contribution of trade to development, the ACP states and the Community decided in Cotonou to overhaul their previous trade relations. They have agreed to conclude new WTO-compatible trading arrangements, progressively removing barriers to trade and enhancing co-operation in all areas related to trade. Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are being negotiated with ACP regions engaged in a regional economic integration process. Their intention is to consolidate regional integration initiatives within the ACP and to foster the gradual integration of the ACP into the global economy on the basis of an open, transparent and predictable framework for goods and services.

Aid for trade

Over the last 40 years, trade has proved to be one of the most effective tools to foster development. Increased trade with developing countries enhances their export earnings, promotes their industrialisation and encourages the diversification of their economies. The classical instruments for achieving these objectives are tariff preferences, which provide an incentive to traders to import products from developing countries and thus help them to compete on international markets.

EU's 2001 Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative has eliminated all duties and quotas for all products (except arms) originating from the world’s least developed countries without any quantitative restrictions (with the exception of bananas, sugar and rice for a limited period). The EU was the first developed market to do so.

A new series of Economic Partnership Agreements have been designed with the ACP countries in order to help ACP countries integrate with their regional neighbours as a step towards global integration. The recent study Linking EU trade and development policies. Lessons from the ACP-EU trade negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements by the German Development Institute assesses the effectiveness of the EU’s effort to link trade and development policy in the context of the EPAs with the ACP countries.    

To enhance the negotiating capacity of and strengthen regional integration within the ACP, a €20 million Programme for capacity building in support of the preparation of Economic Partnership Agreements was put in place. Under the all-ACP Investment Promotion Programme Pro€Invest, a complementary €2 million "trade and investment nexus" (TRINNEX) facility was created to enhance the involvement of the private sector in the preparation of the EPA negotiations. In parallel, a €10 million "Programme to Support the Integration of the ACP States into the World Trading System" was set up.

Institutional framework and funding mechanisms

The European Development Fund (EDF)is the EU’s main instrument for development co-operation. The 10^th EDF covers the period from 2008 to 2013 and was allocated €22.7 billion – a 65 percent rise on the initial amount available under the 9^th EDF. Co-operation with the ACP states funded from the EDF is complemented by development co-operation funded from the EC budget. The main budgetary instruments are the Development Co-operation Instrument, the Instrument for Stability, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and the European Humanitarian Aid Instrument. 

ACP-EU Energy Facility is a co-financing instrument established in 2005 within the EU Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development in order to support projects on increasing access to sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor living in rural and peri-urban areas in ACP countries.

The EU Infrastructure trust fund for Africa is an innovative co-financing instrument of the EU-Africa Partnership on Infrastructure. It brings together the EC, member states, the EIB, and European development financing institutions, which can pool their respective efforts and resources to directly co-finance relevant projects.

The ACP-EU Joint parliamentary assembly was created out of a common desire to bring together the elected representatives of the European Community - the members of the EP - and the elected representatives of the African, Caribbean and Pacific states that have signed the Cotonou Agreement. It is the only international assembly in which the representatives of various countries sit together regularly with the aim of promoting the interdependence of North and South. A substantial part of the work of the Assembly is directed towards promoting human rights and democracy and the common values of humanity, and this has produced joint commitments undertaken within the framework of the UN conferences.

The Centre for Development of Enterprise is an ACP-EU joint institution created in the framework of the Cotonou Agreement. Its objective is to ensure the development of professional ACP enterprises operating in the private sector. The Center provides non-financial services to ACP companies and joint initiatives of ACP and EU economic operators in various economic sectors, with the main aim to increase competitiveness of ACP enterprises.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) is an ACP-EU institution working in the field of information for development. Set up in 1984, it operates within the Cotonou Agreement, with the headquarters in The Netherlands. The CTA work focuses on providing information products and services; promoting the integrated use of communication channels, old and new, to improve the flow of information and building ACP capacity in information and communication management.

The TradeCom programme, also referred to as the TradeCom Facility, is an ACP group programme financed by the EDF. It provides and coordinates trade-related technical assistance to ACP countries. It aims at consolidating, and even creating, where absent, the necessary capacity that would enable ACP countries to craft trade policies with a view to achieving sustainable development, poverty reduction and successful integration into the global trading system.

PRO€INVEST is an EU-ACP partnership programme developed and undertaken by the EC on behalf of the ACP countries. Its objective is to promote investment and technology flows to enterprises operating within key sectors in ACP countries. With a total budget of €110 million over 7 years, PRO€INVEST is financed under the 8th EDF. The programme was launched in 2002 and renewed until 2011.