Brussels, 30/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - Reinforced political dialogue in which the economic and social actors are more involved in the whole of the development process of the 79 countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) is the guarantee of a more effective ACP-EU partnership post-2020, when the Cotonou Agreement expires, according to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
The opinion of the EESC, which was adopted at a plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday 25 May (rapporteur Brenda King), recommends that the role of ACP and European civil society be extended to the monitoring and assessment of the impact of the future partnership, and that sufficient resources be earmarked for this civil society active in development. It calls for the budgetisation of the European Development Fund (EDF), which stands guarantor for democratic controls on the expenditure of the European Parliament, and recommends that the future partnership addresses the shortage of qualified workers in certain sectors, which condemns the ACP countries to exporting unprocessed raw materials. The EESC also backed a renewed peer partnership, adapted to the universal objectives of sustainable development.
This opinion is the EESC's contribution to the ongoing debate on the future of the ACP-EU partnership - a subject which will be central to the eighth summit of the ACP heads of state or government, which will open in Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) on Tuesday 31 May (see EUROPE 11545 and 11521).
Calling for change, Joseph Chilengi, the chair of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union, welcomed this opinion. “We are at a crossroads (…). There are signs that the ACP group is not a priority for the EU, and the partnership between the two rests on weak political foundations and long-standing decisional impasses”, he warned, during the debate which preceded the adoption of the text. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)