As the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council draws to a close, the renewed and modernised Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Organisation of ACP States (OAECP or OACPS), the successor to the Cotonou Agreement, has still not been signed on behalf of the EU.
The EU27 Ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) took note of this on Tuesday 21 December, approving without debate the progress report on the draft EU Council decision on the signing, on behalf of the EU, and the provisional application of the Post-Cotonou Agreement between the EU and the OACPS, which includes 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
“As of 21 December 2021, technical work on the text of the draft Council decision and the text of the agreement has been completed under the Slovenian Presidency, but due to the reservation expressed by one Member State, the file could not be processed further at this stage”, according to the report, which was seen by EUROPE.
In May 2021, Hungary signalled its refusal to sign the text initialled by the chief negotiators on 15 April (see EUROPE 12724/27).
At the end of October, European parliamentarians had already shown signs of impatience, deploring the fact that nine months after the conclusion of a political agreement on the text (see EUROPE 12616/7) and more than five months after the agreement was initialled by European Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen and Togo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey (see EUROPE 12699/2), it had still not been signed (see EUROPE 12824/8).
According to this report, the post-Cotonou Agreement will be a mixed agreement, as requested by the EU Council and eventually accepted by the European Commission.
The EU Council Working Group therefore amended the draft EU Council Decision accordingly and agreed on 19 October on a list of provisions and matters to be excluded from the provisional application. It was informed on 3 December that the OACPS has approved these changes. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)