The EU and the ACP — from Yaoundé to Cotonou

Abstract

The evolution of EU-ACP cooperation between 1957 and 2000 is significant in that it contextualises the European Commission’s current attempts at promoting development amongst its ACP partners. Cooperation between the EU and the countries that came to form the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) bloc in 1975 is almost as old as the Polity itself. French influence in the early days of the EU ensured the development of a ‘special relationship’ between the newly formed European Economic Community and countries tied to Europe through colonialism. The special nature of this relationship came to be entrenched with the signing of the Georgetown Agreement in 1975, the formation of the ACP bloc and the negotiation of the Lomé Convention. The Lomé Convention and its later incarnations were to govern EU-ACP cooperation for 25 years and formed the heart of the EU’s development agenda. The unique bond between the EU and the ACP was epitomised by the Lomé trading regime which established non-reciprocal, privileged access to EU markets for ACP exports. However, by the 1990s it was clear that Lomé had run its course. The EU made it clear that the agreement would not be extended beyond 2000. A new partnership agreement, signed in Cotonou, Benin, in 2000, set out the blueprint for future EU-ACP relations.