The ACP/EEC Conciliation and Arbitration Rules

Abstract

in March 1990, the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Economic Community (ACP/ EEC) approved a set of rules for the settlement of disputes arising out of contracts awarded under the European Development Fund (EDF) by conciliation or arbitration. Thus, a new set of conciliation and arbitration rules was added to those already in existence. Why was there a need to do so? And what new arrangements did it introduce which were not available to parties in dispute under the existing rules? The ACP/EEC relationship is based on a series of Conventions between the EEC and the ACP Group of States since 1975. This relationship itself developed from the earlier relationship between the francophone African countries, formerly colonies of France, and the EEC under the Yaounde Convention, so called because it was concluded in Yaounde in Cameroon in 1969. The United Kingdom was then not a member of the Community, and none of its former colonies with which it still continued to have strong aid and trade ties was involved. After the United Kingdom became a member in 1974, the Yaounde Group of States was enlarged to include the anglophone countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, which had formerly been British colonies. A new Convention with broader application was entered into. It was done in Lome in the Republic of Togo, and became known as the ‘Lome Convention’. The 4th Convention in the series, all of which have been signed in Lome, was signed by the State parties involved in December 1989. Each of the previous Conventions had run for a period of five years. The basic provisions of Lome IV on the other hand will continue for ten years, although various matters, for example, the renewal and size …