EU-ACP countries sign new Partnership Agreement (‘Cotonou Agreement’), Benin, June 2000

On the 23 June 2000 the EU and its Member States signed in Cotonou, Benin, a twenty-year Partnership Agreement with the seventy seven states of the African, Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group.

Background

Background information on relations between the EU and the ACP countries leading up to the Partnership Agreement can be found in the European Sources Online: Topic Guide EU-ACP relations

ACP-EC Partnership Agreement

Following the agreement after long and protracted negotiations in February 2000 on the terms of the 'Partnership Agreement between the Members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States . . . and the European Community and its Member States. . .', the formal signing of the Agreement was scheduled to take place in Fiji in June 2000. A change of plans was required after the disturbances in Fiji in May and June and the formal signing took place in the West African country of Benin on 23 June 2000 in the port city of Cotonou.

The Cotonou Agreement is valid for twenty years. It will come into force once it has been approved by the European Parliament and ratified by the national states of the states concerned. It will be open to revision once every five years.

In addition to the information sources available through the Topic Guide the following sources were issued in connection with the signing:

• The European Community and its Member States sign a new Partnership Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific states in Cotonou, Benin
  European Commission: Press Release: IP/00/640
• Speech by the President of the Council at the Signing Ceremony for the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement, Cotonou, Benin, 23 June 2000-06
  Council of the European Union: Press Release
• New ACP-EU Agreement
  European Commision: DG Development

• includes:
  General overview
  Full text of the Agreement

Further information within European Sources Online:

European Sources Online: Topic Guide
-ACP-EU relations

European Sources Online: In Focus
- Africa-EU Summit, Cairo, 3-4 April 2000

European Sources Online: European Voice
- 10.2.00: 2 - 3 February: ACP-EU ministerial meeting- 16.3.00: ACP group seeks greater role on the global stage- 30.3.00: New pact is milestone on the road towards free trade with ACP bloc- 20.4.00: Doubts cast over WTO waiver for ACP deal- 4.5.00: Cuba has withdrawn its bid to join a trade and aid pact with the EU in protest at Union governments' criticisms of its human rights' record

Further information can be seen in these external links:
(long-term access cannot be guaranteed)

European Commission
- Communication ... Community support for economic reform programmes and structural adjustment: review and prospects [PDF] COM (2000)58 final (4.2.00)

European Commission: Press and Communication Service
-The new EU-ACP Convention. Speech by Mr Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Dar es Salaam University, Tanzania, 7.3.00

European Commission: DG Development
-Website
- Conclusions of the Brussels ministerial conference held on 2 and 3 February 2000

European Parliament
- ACP-EU Joint Assembly

General Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
-Website

Europe's Forum on International Cooperation (EUFORIC)
-Website

Cooperation between the European Union and ACP countries: actors and processes
-Website

Commonwealth Secretariat: Economic Papers Series
- ACP-EU Trade and Aid Co-operation: Post Lomé IV, 1997

Loménet
- Website

German Foundation for International Development (DSE)
- Partnership for the 21st Century. A Preliminary Assessment of the EU-ACP Agreement, 2000

European Solidarity towards Equal Participation of People (EUROSTEP)
- The EU-ACP Negotiations: Goals and Challenges for 2000, 1998

BBC News
- 23.6.00: New trade deal replaces 'Lome'

Further and subsequent information on the subject of this week's In Focus can be found by an 'Advanced Search' in European Sources Online by inserting 'EU-ACP relations' in the keyword field.

Ian Thomson
Executive Editor, European Sources Online
Compiled: 24 June 2000

On the 23 June 2000 the EU and its Member States signed in Cotonou, Benin, a twenty-year Partnership Agreement with the seventy seven states of the African, Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group.