The ACP Group is united and will speak with one voice, it was again made clear in Brussels on Wednesday 23 May by two Assistant Secretaries General of the group of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that are linked to the EU by the Cotonou Agreement until 2020. The ACP Group is determined to negotiate a modernised post-Cotonou agreement with the EU as a single bloc, they reiterated.
The two were speaking to the press ahead of the 107th meeting of the ACP Council of Ministers (in Lomé, Togo, on 29 and 30 May) that will be preceded, on 27 May, by a special session devoted to the future negotiations which are due to begin in August. The 107th Council of Ministers will be followed by a joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers on 31 May and 1 June.
The ACP Committee of Ambassadors has agreed a negotiating mandate that will be put to the ACP ministers for approval. “It follows on directly from the principles and the three pillars of the ‘Towards the ACP we want’ document” published by the ACP heads of state at the Port Moresby summit, said Assistant Secretary General Leonard Emile Ognimba.
The three pillars are: - trade, investment, industrialisation and services; - development cooperation in line with the sustainable development goals, technology, science, innovation and research; - political dialogue and advocacy (see EUROPE 11782).
“We want to speak with a single ACP voice. Trade should be fair, the principle of ownership should guide the development of the ACP countries and the political dialogue will be among equals”, stated Assistant Secretary General Henrique Banze.
The ACP countries want a legally binding agreement of unlimited duration and are ready to include North Africa in the all ACP partnership agreement that will be supplemented by agreements between the EU and each of the three regions.
When asked about the migration chapter of the new partnership, Ognimba told EUROPE that “the major principle will be to discuss the matter in its overall dimension which encompasses the link between migration, development and security”. He added: “we have to create the conditions that are needed to keep young people in their own countries”. In Banze’s view, “the ‘development’ component of migration is important. Citizens abroad contribute to the incomes of their host countries and their countries of origin”. He said the discussion on the cost of money transfers will be an important issue to be discussed with the EU and in international fora on development funding because “we need institutions like Western Union to guarantee that the cost can be kept to the limit”.
On the same day, President of the Commission of the African Union Moussa Faki Mahamat, who had just signed a memorandum of understanding on security and peace with the European Commission, told the press that strengthening relations between the EU and the AU was not incompatible with the ACP-EU partnership. “We want a continent-to-continent relationship. That doesn’t mean that there is no solidarity with the Caribbean and the Pacific”, he said. He indicated that the joint African position on the negotiations would be set out in Lomé.
On the sidelines of the ACP Council of Ministers meeting, an inter-agency consultation will be held with continental and regional organisations, such as the African Union Commission (AUC), CARICOM and the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) on 26 May to give them the opportunity to contribute to the negotiating framework of the ACP Group. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)