The mid-term review of the Lome IV Convention: Heralding the future?

Abstract

cooperation relationship. At present the Lome Convention is in force in its fourth version, previous ones having been negotiated every five years since 1975. The provisions of Lome IV, however, apply for a period of 10 years, from 1990 to 2000. The financial package attached to the Convention when it was signed, the seventh European Development Fund (EDF), only covered five years. At the conclusion of the negotiations of Lome IV, the parties agreed that a mid-term review (MTR) would be undertaken after the first five years in order to see if any modifications were necessary. They also agreed that a new Financial Protocol was to be concluded for the second five year period.' At the time, many perceived the MTR as a process entered into mainly for the latter purpose, and as an opportunity to look marginally at the provisions of Lome IV, based on the experiences of the first five years of operation. Certainly it was not seen as a forum to reopen discussion on the fundamentals of Lome. In reality, however, it turned out quite differently, as in fact the European Commission presented a number of proposals which would lead to far-reaching changes.2 Thus the MTR was of crucial importance for the future of AcP-EU relations. The official joint negotiations in the context of the MTR took off in November 1994. Although some important progress was made in relation to a number of pertinent problems soon after its start, the MTR reached a stalemate, and was