On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday 28 September, the two chief negotiators – European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica and Togo's Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Dussey – gave the formal kick-off to the negotiations between the 79 ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) states and the EU for a renewed, updated and more effective partnership after the expiry of the Cotonou Agreement in February 2020.
"At a time when multilateralism seems to be losing its proactiveness, our future partnership will be the test of a new approach to international cooperation and for delivering on our common interests and common challenges. During this process, I hope we can recharge the vision and leadership, which are today more necessary than ever in a world where solidarity, equity, integrity and global partnership are being challenged", Mimica said.
In his view, human rights and the rule of law will be crucial for promoting sustainable development. And gender equality, growth and investment, environmental protection, and climate action are challenges that no country can address alone.
Mimica stated that the technical negotiation teams have been given a mandate to meet "in the coming days or weeks to compare EU and ACP respective mandates in order to align priorities and discuss the common objectives and principles that will form the basis of future agreement".
Political steering. The negotiations will be directed at the highest political level by a steering committee, and Mimica said he was ready to bring his assistance at any time, underlining the urgency of concluding in a timely fashion, by next summer. Meetings will have to be planned so that the steering committee can review progress regularly.
In Dussey's opinion, these negotiations offer the ACP hope, "if the cooperation between the ACP and EU remains faithful to its original ambition, if the partnership remains at the service of ACP human rights and ACP human development". "A key challenge for the ACP is to unlock development", he said. And he called for clarity on crucial issues like migration, trade, the environment and climate change.
African Union agreed not to replace Africa group. Officially launched in August, these negotiations have not been able to start until now due to a problem in the Africa group, which was born of the African Union's (AU) desire to be the interlocutor in these negotiations (see EUROPE 12084).
The problem has now finally been resolved, with the African group agreeing, at the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa on 14 September, to negotiate in the framework of the ACP. This meeting did not lead to formal conclusions, the AU Commission intending to insert in its conclusions that it would be the lead partner on questions of interest for Africa. However, in the meantime, all the members of the AU say they stand by the almost unanimous position expressed in Addis Ababa.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the ACP ministers from the central negotiation group (12 members, including 8 Africans) thus enshrined this position, which has enabled the blockage to be removed from this situation. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)