Post-Cotonou and the EU-African relationship A green light for a renewed cooperation? Bruges Political Research Papers 77/2019

Schefer, Gauthier (2019) Post-Cotonou and the EU-African relationship A green light for a renewed cooperation? Bruges Political Research Papers 77/2019. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The Cotonou Partnership Agreement, signed in 2000 and set to expire in 2020, is allegedly the most advanced collaboration between the EU and some of the lowest-income countries in the world. In practice, however, its achievements are meagre and contested. Nonetheless, the EU and ACP countries officially launched in 2018 the negotiation of the post-Cotonou agreement, which aims to deepen the Cotonou’s acquis. While environmental concerns in the EU-Africa relation often fall under the radar of scientific literature, this paper aims to show how the prism of environmental and climate mainstreaming helps in explaining the declining relevance of the post-Cotonou framework. Even though a rhetoric of a ‘deepened partnership’ became the leitmotiv of post-Cotonou, ‘far reaching’ environmental provisions in the future agreement are impeded by structural deficiencies. This reflects in post-Cotonou’s current draft, trying hard to push environmental ambitions but maintaining a ‘coherence’ between regional protocols that is detrimental to any real environmental mainstreaming progresses. A ‘greener’ post-Cotonou will be achieved only if references to other external policies are made due to the progressive ‘externalisation’ of Cotonou’s original pillars: political dialogue, trade and development cooperation into other agreements reducing therefore post-Cotonou’s added-value to a minimal.

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