The Samoa Agreement, a modernised partnership agreement between the EU and its Member States, on the one hand, and the 79 Members of the Organisation of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), on the other, was signed on Wednesday 15 November in Apia (Samoa, Pacific), paving the way for a partnership better adapted to the challenges of the 21st century, at the end of half a century of cooperation under the Lomé Conventions, followed by the Cotonou Agreement signed in 2000 for a period of 20 years.
‘At last!’ and ‘historic’ - these words were on everyone’s lips at the signing ceremony of the Agreement which, in January 2024, by provisional application, will take over from the Cotonou Agreement for the next 20 years, with the ambition of facing together the common challenges of a changing world (see EUROPE 13292/19).
Unlike the Cotonou Agreement, the Samoa Agreement contains a common core of values, principles and strategic priorities - from which trade provisions are excluded, since the seven Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) concluded separately with the sub-regions come under EU trade policy. Cooperation will be financed by the EU budget (and no longer by the European Development Fund) and Global Gateway investments mobilising funds from the EU, the Member States, the European Investment Bank and private funds (‘Team Europe’, in EU jargon).
This framework agreement, an instrument of political dialogue at the heart of EU foreign policy, focuses on the following six strategic priorities: - human rights, democracy and governance; - peace and security; - human and social development; - environmental sustainability and climate change; - sustainable economic growth and development; - migration and mobility.
It is flanked by three separate protocols with each of the Africa/Caribbean/Pacific regions. The ACP/EU Joint Assembly is replaced by regional parliamentary assemblies.
Started in 2018, negotiations for the post-Cotonou agreement, now officially named the ‘Samoa Agreement’, had been finalised by April 2021 between the EU and OACPS (see EUROPE 12699/2). This was followed by 2 years of twists and turns on the European side, which delayed the signing. The only thing that matters now is the result, which everyone was delighted with, hoping to derive mutual benefit from it and to be able to carry more weight in international fora, in a particularly difficult geopolitical context.
“The negotiations were long and complex”, acknowledged the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, at the signing ceremony. She welcomed the new agreement, which “takes the partnership to a new level” and “updates it to reflect political challenges and opportunities”, for mutual success and for strengthening our voice in international fora and our collective impact on a global scale.
She welcomed the shared commitment of “106 countries on four continents, representing 1.5 billion people” to “a fairer, cleaner and more sustainable future”, and highlighted what she saw as the strengths of the agreement, namely “the alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030, the focus on gender equality and inclusiveness, the strengthening of our capacity to respond to new challenges, such as climate change, and the mechanism for civil society participation”.
They all paid tribute to the work done by Jutta Urpilainen and Togo’s foreign minister, Robert Dussey, who were the chief negotiators.
The Samoa Agreement “will help both sides to better address global challenges together and will reinforce bilateral cooperation in a wide range of aspects, from climate to peace and security, in the upcoming two decades”, said Spain’s Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, on behalf of the EU Council.
Hosting the event, the Prime Minister of Samoa, Naomi Mata’afa, said she was delighted to have been able to host “this historic event”, as decided by the ACP Council of Ministers in 2019, and to have “been able to share a little of the reality of the challenges and culture” of Samoa, a small island state. She stressed the importance of mutual understanding between members of a “family of very many and very diverse nations”, and championed multilateral solutions to the multiple and multidimensional crises facing “already vulnerable countries”.
OACPS Secretary General Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti expressed his “gratitude to all those who contributed to the final signing ceremony”.
For the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, who was unable to attend the signing ceremony, this agreement marks a turning point in the EU’s external relations. “At a moment in time where multilateralism is in danger, the fact that so many countries can come together and agree on joining forces to face global challenges opens a door for optimism”, he said in a press release. He added that the Samoa Agreement “brings together more than half of the UN members”.
The ACP-EU Council of Ministers, which preceded the signature ceremony, co-chaired by the Spanish Secretary of State and the Timor-Leste Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Bendito dos Santos Freitas, mandated the ACP-EU Committee of Ambassadors to adopt a joint declaration on the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) (Dubai, 30 November-12 December 2023), in a timely manner before this COP. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)