On Friday 5 May, the ministers from the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) states approached the joint meeting of the ACP-EU Council (see EUROPE 11780) determined to negotiate, with a united front, a binding partnership agreement with the EU for after 2020 when the Cotonou Agreement expires, and also determined to strengthen the position of the ACP Group on the international scene.
The 105th session of the ACP Council of Ministers, which ended in Brussels on Thursday 4 May, took several decisions in this direction, including an agreement in principle on the future priorities of the ACP Group. "Our group is at a critical juncture and we are reflecting on how to be more dynamic and effective as a global actor and implementer of the universal sustainable development goals (SDG). We therefore decided to mandate our committee of ambassadors to review the Georgetown Agreement (Ed: from 1975), which is our founding document. Financial durability is a priority for us and we are working on setting up a trust fund and the diversification of our partnerships beyond the EU", Ethiopia's Minister for Finance and Economic Cooperation and current president of the ACP Council, Abraham Tekeste, stated.
The three priorities approved by the ACP Council for guiding the ACP Group's' programmes and activities after 2020 are: - trade, investment, industrialisation and services; - development cooperation, technology, science and innovation/research; - and political dialogue and advocacy.
A mandate has been given to the ACP committee of ambassadors to set up a central group and technical groups for negotiating the establishment of key principles that will guide the negotiations with their European partners. These negotiations will begin in 2018, on the partnership agreement that will succeed the Cotonou Agreement. The legally binding nature of this future agreement is one of these key principles, Tekeste stated.
Although Germany and the Netherlands seem to want to concentrate the future partnership on development cooperation and trade at African Union level, Tekeste was confident, because "nothing has been decided yet".
If issues such as security, counter-terrorism and peace are not mentioned in the ACP priorities, it is because the ACP Group divides the work, according to the principle of subsidiarity. "We consider that sub-regional and continental organisations are better able to manage these issues. The African Union, for example, has its own architecture for peace and security", Tekeste told press. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Indian Ocean Commission work better, ACP Group Secretary General Patrick Ignatius Gomes added.
"The young people who join the ranks of Boko Haram, that mockery of Islam, are looking for an objective for their life. The ACP Group cannot be equipped with an army", Gomes stated. By contrast, he underlined the interest of the intra-ACP Culture Plus programme "which enables young people to use their talent and have an objective", the importance of "fighting against poverty in all its forms", especially through education, and of "strengthening intra-ACP capacities".
Cooperation between the ACP and developing countries in North America and Asia, and the South-South Cooperation, is what should be understood by diversification of partnerships beyond the EU, Tekeste stated.
Although 38% of the ACP secretariat's budget comes from the EU at the current time, the ACP future endowment and trust fund will be sourced by ACP contributions, but also by voluntary contributions "– and why not including voluntary contributions from the billionaires of certain ACP countries like Kenya?" This fund is deemed crucial "for mobilising resources for our future actions", Tekeste stated. It will be used for investing in education, the status of women, and health. Development of the private sector and the creation of a climate favouring investment, "without overlooking the investment capacities of the ACP countries themselves", will have everything to gain, Tekeste stated. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)