European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, described Africa as Europe’s “twin continent” during his State of the Union Address in 2018.
In June 2000, the ACP group (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States) and the then 15 EU Member States, signed the Cotonou Agreement, establishing a comprehensive partnership between the two continents to address developmental, political and economic cooperation. In particular, economic partnership agreements were negotiated in line with article 36 of the Agreement, to design agreements in line with WTO rules by “removing progressively barriers to trade between them and enhancing cooperation in all areas relevant to trade”.
After the Agreement was fully realised in 2003, it was revised further in 2005 and 2010, adapting the partnership to encompass contemporary policy concerns including poverty reduction, sustainable development and greater integration of ACP countries into the global economy through trade. The trade chapter of the Agreement also reflected the ACP group’s new trade relationships and renewed preferences which became apparent at the end of 2007.
Both the history and extensiveness of the Agreement may come as a surprise to some, given the apparent differences of the two continents. The EU is a well-established trading bloc and with Member States considerably more developed than those of its African counterpart. A notable lesser degree of regional integration exists in the latter as well as fewer democratic regimes. As such, there are a number of contentious points in the agreement, with the greatest identified by the European Parliamentary Research Service to be migration. European citizens tend to view migration as a concern while African citizens perceive it as an opportunity; this was addressed in the Valleta Summit in 2015 in order to find a constructive compromise.
So has the Agreement been a success? Article 96 authorises sanctions in case political dialogue fails and has been used numerous times as a response to coups d’État or violations of human rights, for example in Fiji (2000 and 2007) and Burundi (2015). However, there are certain provisions such as Article 97 which been applied, which foresees dialogue and sanctions against corrupt regimes. The issue of LGBT rights is also a real weakness of the partnership agreement. What is more, the economic dimension of the Agreement is also not as successful as might have been hoped. The African Union (AU) outlined that “the share of imports and exports between Africa and the EU keeps decreasing. Between 2012 and 2016, importations have fallen to 11,1% and exportation to 1%”. Additionally, there are several countries such as Nigeria which always refuse to sign economic partnership agreements as they view deals as a threat to domestic markets.
By Amelia Hacon
That said, with the expiration of the Agreement approaching in February 2020, Post-Cotonou talks have been ongoing between the ACP group and Brussels since 2017 to consider how the relations between the two continents may continue.
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