Eurozone Crisis and Its Implications for the Funding of Economic Partnership Agreements

Abstract

This chapter examines the Eurozone crisis and the likely implications that it could have on the ability and capacity of the European Union (EU) in funding the adjustment costs of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for Nigeria and other countries in the West African subregion. As stated in the preceding section, the EPAs will have various revenue implications for the signatory countries in terms of loss in revenue from the removal of tariffs and the cost of building capacity of institutions and infrastructures, which are necessary to address supply-side constraints. Although the EPAs are supposed to facilitate the development of the African, Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP) countries, the historical and contemporary challenges of these countries in terms of huge infrastructural deficits, gaps in service delivery and expectations, and inadequate institutional capacities, make it imperative for the EU to make adjustment costs available to the ACP countries to meet these challenges. Indeed, the EC has a European Development Fund (EDF) of 23.970 billion euros for the tenth EDF, and member states agreed on 29.089 billion for the eleventh EDF. There are concerns about a reduction in what was proposed (34.276 billion) by the EU and what was approved by the EU member states. The issue of using certain criteria on governance as a means of determining which country is eligible to access these funds, have also been raised by civil society organizations (Concord, 2013).