EU, Africa, Caribbean, Pacific states renegotiating partnership

The European Union and 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) group have begun negotiations on the future of their cooperation after 2020.

The ambition is to transform today's partnership into a modern political framework geared to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

The countries in the EU and the ACP represent more than half of all UN member countries and unite over 1.5 billion people. The current partnership, governed by the Cotonou agreement, is one of the longest-standing and most comprehensive framework for cooperation between the EU and developing countries, and it expires in 2020.

According to the EU's chief negotiator, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica: “The partnership between the EU and the countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific is an asset for the EU and multilateralism at large. The revision of the existing agreement is a great opportunity to further deepen the partnership and modernise it in response to global developments such as the UN 2030 Agenda or the Paris Agreement on climate change."

In turn, Professor Robert Dussey, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Togo and chief negotiator for the ACP, said that “the connection between the ACP and the EU was established in 1975 in first Article of the Georgetown Agreement, the Constitutive Act of the ACP Group. The partnership is a valuable and unique achievement that has strengthened bonds between ACP and EU peoples and countries throughout the last 45 years of its existence. The new negotiations herald the continuity of trust and confidence cherished by parties to this partnership.