Rethinking ACP-EU relations after Cotonou: tensions, contradictions, prospects

Carbone, M. (2013) Rethinking ACP-EU relations after Cotonou: tensions, contradictions, prospects. Journal of International Development, 25(5), pp. 742-756. (doi: 10.1002/jid.2929)

Abstract

This Policy Arena has two main objectives. First, it seeks to unravel how the partnership between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group has evolved since the adoption of the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, including its 2005 and 2010 reviews and the implementation of its three key pillars (development cooperation, trade and political dialogue). Second, it explores the prospects of EU-ACP relations in the medium to long term. In particular, it discusses whether the ACP-EU cooperation framework is still relevant in the light of a number of global changes and, more specifically, whether the ACP configuration is still useful to its members. To address these issues, both the EU and the ACP Group have established two working groups. Within the ACP, voices are critical of the EU-ACP partnership, but there appears to be more willingness to reform and renew it. Within the EU, the record of the Cotonou Agreement is seen more positively, but there seems to be less willingness to preserve it. The third review of the Cotonou Agreement to be finalised by 2015, and more generally its expiration in 2020, provides an opportunity – to which this Policy Arena seeks to contribute – to rethink the EU-ACP cooperation model.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Carbone, Professor Maurizio
• Authors: Carbone, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: Journal of International Development
• ISSN: 0954-1748
• ISSN (Online): 1099-1328