Africa , Caribbean And Pacific Research Articles

The Africa-EU Relations and Regional Integration in Africa: Reassessing EU’s Influence on Africas’s Integration Project(s)

L’UE considère la promotion de l’intégration régionale comme un pilier central de ses relations avec le reste du monde et comme un élément important de son identité en tant que nouvel acteur mondial. Son objectif est de faire du système international une « communauté» fondée sur la réussite de son propre modèle. C’est dans cette optique qu’elle a fortement contribué au développement de l’intégration régionale dans plusieurs régions du monde. L’investissement de l’UE en faveur des initiatives d’intégration africaine a été particulièrement important. Elle a appuyé le « projet » d’intégration régionale de l’Afrique en dégageant des ressources financières et techniques importantes, en particulier pour les capacités administratives et de sécurité de l’Union africaine (UA) et de ses Communautés économiques régionales (CER). Toutefois, les analystes ont constaté que les rapports Afrique-UE ont souvent été caractérisés par une asymétrie de pouvoir et de ressources. Cela a favorisé et renforcé les liens déjà existants entre les anciens colonisateurs (Belgique, France, Pays-Bas et Royaume-Uni) et leurs anciennes colonies en Afrique, de sorte que les relations ne sont devenues que « un instrument hégémonique et ont renforcé le poids du vieux continent » dans le paysage africain. Par conséquent, ces relations entre l’UE et l’Afrique auraient des effets désintégrateurs sur l’Afrique, sapant les initiatives d’intégration en cours sur ce continent. Cet article montre l’héritage du colonialisme et le corollaire des forts clivages qui en résultent entre les anciennes puissances coloniales, en particulier la France, et leurs anciennes colonies ; l’incongruité des intérêts européens avec l’objectif de promouvoir l’intégration régionale et les objectifs des acteurs locaux ; la poursuite rigide d’un modèle formaliste et fonctionnel d’intégration incompatible avec l’économie politique africaine et son manque de cohérence dans la mise en œuvre des moyens politiques qu’elle a définis, tout cela s’étant traduit par des tentatives visant à compromettre les efforts de construction régionale en Afrique. Le présent document observe ainsi que si l’intégration régionale est une « condition sine qua non» du développement socio-économique de l’Afrique, sa place dans le cadre des relations UE-Afrique doit être réévaluée, d’autant que l’UE négocie un nouvel accord de partenariat avec les pays d’Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique (ACP) en prévision de l’expiration de l’accord de Cotonou en 2020.

Boosting regional integration in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific

Regional integration continues to occupy the minds of many leaders in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions, indicating there is significant political will to move this agenda forward. International institutions and agencies are working closely with countries on a range of initiatives to accelerate the process.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OBSERVATORY /DARNUS VYSTYMASIS BESIVYSTANČIOSE ŠALYSE: AFRIKOS, KARIBŲ IR RAMIOJO VANDENYNO VALSTYBIŲ APŽVALGA

Freshwater, aquaculture, fisheries, biodiversity, forests, and agricultural land have high economic and social value throughout the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region; but they can also be over‐exploited, with damaging consequences for local economies, long term stability and for the Earth system as a whole – especially the climate system. The ACP's fast growing population puts growing pressure on the environment to provide food, water and fibre, on the regions’ urban centres and transport networks, and on energy sources. Information on the location, condition and evolution of resources is an important step towards sustainability, but unfortunately such information can be hard to get. Earth observing satellite technology combined with geographical information management can help fill the information gap. In this objective, and because of its unique position to support the implementation of advanced interoperable geospatial technologies, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) is setting‐up of an “Observatory for sustainable development” as single portal to support decision‐making for development in the fields of natural resource and food security. The African Union and European Union recognise the importance of this service and are beginning to develop this capacity as part of the AU EU joint strategic partnership. This paper describes the needs, and presents the first steps taken by the JRC and by the joint partnership in harnessing space technologies to help meet Millennium Development Goals, in particular eradication of poverty, and environmental sustainability. Santrauka Gėlasis vanduo, akvakultūra, žuvininkystė, biologinė įvairovė, miškų ir žemės ūkio paskirties žemė turi didėlę ekonominę ir socialinę vertę visoje Afrikoje, Karibų ir Ramiojo vandenyno (AKR) valstybių regione, bet šie veiksniai gali būti per daug eksploatuojami ir tureti žalingų padarinių vietinei ekonomikai, ilgalaikiam stabilumui ir visai Žemės sistemai, ypač klimato sistemai. Dėl greitai augančio AKR gyventojų skaičiaus regionų miestų centruose transporto tinklų ir energijos šaltinių vietose dideja aplinkos naudojimo mastas, siekiant gyventojus aprūpinti maistu, vandeniu ir lasteliena. Informacija apie vietoves išteklius, išteklių būklę ir raidą yra svarbus žingsnis siekiant darnos, bet, dėja, tokia informacija sunku surinkti. Žemės stebejimo palydovais technologija, sujungta su geografines informacijos valdymu, gali padėti užpildyti šios informacijos spragą. Dėl šio tikslo ir dėl unikalios padėties, siekiant diegti pažangias tarpusavyje saveikaujančias geoerdvines technologijas, Europos Komisijos (EK) jungtinis tyrimu centras (JTC) yra įkūręs Darnaus vystymosi observatorijas kaip viena portalą, kad palaikytų sprendimų priemimo plėtote gamtinių išteklių ir maisto saugumo srityse. Afrikos Sąjunga (AS) ir Europos Sąjunga (ES) pripažįsta šios paslaugos svarbą ir pradėjo plėtoti šiuos pajėgumus kaip dali strateginės AS ir ES partnerystės. Straipsnyje pristatomi pirmieji žingsniai, žengti AKR valstybių, plėtojant jungtinę partnerystę kosminių technologijų srityje, siekiant spręsti tūkstantmečio tikslus – mažinti skurdą ir tobulinti darnų aplinkos vystymą.

Environmental, Labour and Anti-Corruption Texts in International Investment Agreements: A Large Sample Survey

This paper surveys the environmental, labour and anti-corruption texts in a sample of 296 international investment agreements, including bilateral treaties and free trade agreements with investment chapters. The paper’s key findings are: 1) Most countries never include language on environmental labour or anti-corruption concerns in their investment treaties. Twenty-four of the 39 countries do not include any language on such issues in any of their investment treaties. Among the 15 countries that have included such language in one or more treaties, the language covers mainly environmental and labour issues. More recently, anti-corruption concerns and, very rarely, human rights have been mentioned in a few treaties. Treatment of these issues varies from language in Preambles (e.g. Finland and the Netherlands) to substantive and procedural language in provisions, annexes and side agreements (e.g. many North American agreements). 2) Over the past two decades, more countries have been including such language in their investment agreements. The first agreement in the sample that covers such issues is the 1990 Polish-US bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Since the mid-1990s, Canada, Mexico and the United States have accumulated a large stock of agreements that include language on environmental and labour issues. More recently, other countries (Belgium, Finland, Japan) and regional organisations (European Union and European Free Trade Area) have included environmental and labour language in agreements. Anti-corruption language is a more recent innovation – it appears in four US agreements in the sample as well as in three cooperation and partnership agreements (Japan-Philippines and EU-Russia and the Cotonou Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries). 3) The treatment of these issues varies considerably from one agreement to the other. Variations in language show both idiosyncratic influences and substantive differences in approach to issues. Some treaties explicitly refer to relevant international instruments (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights). The sample texts also show that innovations in language in one agreement are often adopted by other countries for use in their own agreements and that this process of mutual influence has resulted in partial harmonisation of texts. 4) Investment treaty language does not keep pace with innovations in the labour, environmental and anti-corruption fields. International initiatives in the environmental, labour and anti-corruption fields have produced a rich array of new international norms.In anti-corruption, six major conventions or protocols have been signed since 1996. Several hundred international environmental agreements have been signed since the Stockholm Conference of 1972 and the International Labour Organisation is active in the development and promotion of new labour norms. This survey shows that, presumably because of the high cost of renegotiating treaties, the language of international investment agreements, is not quickly updated to reflect these developments. The “stickiness” of investment treaty language, juxtaposed with the dynamism of norms development in the other fields, means that investment treaty language can quickly become dated or incomplete. This is a consideration for both users and drafters of investment treaties, with the former needing to consider whether and how new norms can be integrated into the interpretation of older investment treaties and the latter facing the challenge of drafting treaty language that will be robust with respect to the rapid evolution in labour, environmental and anti-corruption norms.

EU Economic Partnership Agreements and WTO negotiations. A quantitative assessment of trade preference granting and erosion in the banana market

The paper provides a quantitative assessment of the impact on the banana market of the expansion of trade preferences the European Union granted Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries with the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and of the possible erosion of these preferences as a result of different possible conclusions, if any, of on-going WTO negotiations. The results of the simulations performed suggest that the impact of the EPA on production and consumption of bananas in the EU will be limited, while benefits for ACP countries will be significant (at the expense of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) exporters). An agreement between the EU and MFN countries to end the outstanding WTO disputes on bananas and/or the conclusion of the WTO Doha round may bring an erosion of the preferential margins currently enjoyed by ACP countries of such an order of magnitude as to cancel out most of these benefits.

Economic Partnership Agreements: What Can We Learn?

A major milestone was witnessed on 1 January 2008 in 10 years of discussion and five years of formal negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group o...