The chief negotiators of the EU and the 79 countries in the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific (OACPS) reached a political agreement on Thursday evening 3 December on the modernised partnership that will take over from the Cotonou Agreement (concluded in 2000) to help both sides better respond to the common challenges of the 21st century (see EUROPE 12615/18).
This is a success for arduous negotiations that were launched in September 2018, in the margins of the UN General Assembly, where the EU and OACPS represent more than half of the votes with a total of 1.5 billion inhabitants (see EUROPE 12107/16).
But adjustments are still possible between now and January 2021, when this agreement will be initialled by the Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and the Togolese Foreign Minister, Robert Dussey. This initialling will mark the end of the negotiations.
This agreement “marks a step towards a new era for the EU, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. People in all those four regions of the world will benefit from this ambitious Agreement, that will allow us to better deal with the new realities and challenges as global actors”, Ms Urpilainen stressed.
In the view of Mr Dussey, “the political agreement reached at the end of these long and intense negotiations paves the way for a modern and more committed partnership at national, regional and international levels”.
The future partnership will be based on an umbrella or ‘common base’ agreement applicable to all and three ‘tailor-made’ regional protocols for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific respectively. The umbrella agreement and these three protocols will be legally binding and concluded for 20 years.
Principles, values and strategic priorities. The umbrella agreement sets out values and principles and six priorities: 1) human rights, democracy and governance; 2) peace and security; 3) human and social development; 4) environmental sustainability and climate change; 5) economic growth and inclusive, sustainable development; 6) migration and mobility.
“The Paris Agreement and the sustainable development goals are cross-cutting priorities that can be found in all the chapters”, a senior European official said Thursday evening by videoconference. According to him, certain principles are reinforced concerning humanitarianism, democracy and governance, human rights, good practices in electoral processes and gender equality. “Sexual and reproductive health rights are mentioned by a reference to the Beijing Declaration”, he said.
The current Article 8 of the Cotonou Agreement (the article on political dialogue), “which was seen as the antechamber to Article 96 [which could lead to the suspension of cooperation, as a last resort: editor’s note] is replaced by a dialogue covering all aspects of the partnership”, said the source.
A chapter on the settlement of disputes takes up the essential elements of the current Article 96 (respect for human rights, democratic principles, the rule of law and good governance) and specifies the procedure with shorter deadlines and the immediate possibility of unilateral action, the senior official said.
Migration and mobility: This was one of the issues that gave the negotiators a hard time. The chapter covers migration and mobility in a broad sense, taking into account legal migration and mobility, diaspora and its remittances, but also the need to address irregular migration, smuggling of migrants and human trafficking, in accordance with international law, including international human rights law.
The text expands and clarifies the current Article 13 ‘Migration’ of the Cotonou Agreement, which provides for “an in-depth dialogue”. Now there is a record of countries’ commitment to the return and readmission of their nationals, with a verification obligation and a timetable for the documents to be produced.
It is foreseen that in case of lack of cooperation, one party will be obliged to notify the other party and that “this can lead to taking proportional measures”. An annex on the operation of returns and readmissions and on timetables applies to all three regions.
“Article 13 was vague and not workable. We now have a process on how dialogue on these issues will work in practice”, the same source said.
End of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. The text provides for joint parliamentary assemblies at regional level, without specifying how often they will meet. The ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) has therefore come to an end. Joint ministerial meetings are scheduled at least every 3 years.
“Parliament is not happy. We are still speaking with Parliament to identify if adjustments could reassure them”, the senior European official acknowledged.
The European Parliament, which wishes to maintain the JPA, has indeed threatened not to give its consent to the future Partnership Agreement if it does not obtain it, considering that “a parliamentary dimension with a genuine consultative role for the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, as well as at regional level, is a non-negotiable condition” (see EUROPE 12615/18).
Financing: The political agreement was reached without a financial protocol, as financing will now take place under the EU budget 2021-2027 once adopted. There is no OACPS envelope as such, but the single NDICI financial instrument for Neighbourhood and Development Cooperation provides funds for all countries. “And there is nothing to prevent the financing of actions at EU-OACPS level, such as the Climate Change Alliance, for example”, the senior European official stressed.
Internal EU consultations will now take place (inter-service consultations) on the political agreement. Further extension of the Cotonou Agreement until 30 November 2021 has been proposed.
Having expired last February, its application had already been extended until the end of 2020. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)