The fact that the EU has still not signed the post-Cotonou Agreement, which was initialled in April 2021, raises questions among parliamentarians from the 79 member countries of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) linked to the EU by the current Cotonou Agreement, which had to be extended until June 2023.
These concerns were expressed at the 42nd session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), the political forum of the Cotonou Agreement, which ended on 2 November in Maputo, Mozambique (see EUROPE 13053/19).
“We need to regain multilateral solidarity from which the United Nations, the ACP/EU partnership and this African, Caribbean and Pacific/European Union Joint Parliamentary Assembly are bastions, from which we can start a new cycle of trust and cooperation. In this sense, I want to express my disappointment at the Hungarian government’s blockade of the ratification of the post-Cotonou agreement”, said JPA Co-President Carlos Zorrinho (S&D, Portuguese). This is especially true since the future agreement “translates a partnership between new generation equals and in which the parliamentary dimension is strengthened”.
MEPs had already expressed their outrage at the delay on several occasions - most recently in mid-October when they wrote to the Czech Presidency of the EU Council urging it to act to finally lift the Hungarian reservation (see EUROPE 13041/14).
Together with their ACP counterparts, they had the opportunity to question the EU Council and the European Commission on this issue.
“ACP parliamentarians have asked whether there is not a hypocrisy in the EU claiming to want this modernised partnership when nothing is moving forward”, Maria Arena (S&D, Belgian) told EUROPE.
The EU Council and the European Commission explained that this mixed agreement requires the unanimity of the Member States to be ratified and that Hungary is concerned about the migration dimension of the Agreement.
The JPA Co-President, Carlos Zorrinho and the Soloman Islands MP, Peter Kenilorea Jr, said they hope that the joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers, scheduled for 29 November, can take a step towards ratification of the Agreement.
“The more misunderstandings there are, the more important it is to have a joint parliamentary assembly”, Ms Arena said. According to her, the non-signature by the European side and the refusal of ACP countries to take a stand against Russia in the war in Ukraine are “two points of tension”.
The ACP parliamentarians and MEPs nevertheless discussed the impact of the war on their own countries. No resolution was adopted on this issue.
The Co-President of the JPA, Peter Kenilorea Jr., also welcomed the debate on the fight against terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa and the urgent resolution on climate cooperation (see other news). He stressed that the JPA calls for the rich countries’ commitment to pay $100 billion per year to developing countries to be honoured and for the issue of loss and damage to developing countries be resolved. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)