Brussels, 29/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The 78 ACP states and the 27 EU member states met in Brussels on 28-29 May 2009 for the 34th ACP-EU Council and the official launch of the five-year review of the twenty-year Cotonou Agreement signed in 2000 to bring it up to date with the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with ACP regions, which made the trade measures of the Cotonou Agreement out of date in January 2008 (when the interim EPAs ahead of long-term free trade deals were earmarked). The two sides took advantage of this opportunity to improve other measures, like the political dialogue measures (Articles 8 and 96), immigration, and in line with France's request, measures to tackle the proliferation of small arms. They also improved measures on development to incorporate recent progress in the Accra Agenda on aid efficiency and the division of labour at global level. These were the main areas of review, notified by both sides in advance. No detailed debates took place but Helena Bambasova, Czech Co-president of the joint EU-ACP Council, told reporters that the EU and ACP shared the objective of concluding the review by the end of February 2010. William Haomae, ACP Co-president (of the Solomon Islands), added: “I believe that both the ACP Group and the European Union, in light of global trends and respective needs of member states, would ensure that a revised agreement would be one that is relevant and applicable to the reality and demands of the world today.” Joakim Stymne, Swedish Secretary of State for international development cooperation, said the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU was already committing itself to concluding the review on time (A.N./transl.fl)