"The changing environment of EU-ACP relations: The Cotonou Agreement"

Babarinde, Olufemi. (2001) "The changing environment of EU-ACP relations: The Cotonou Agreement" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 28, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to flesh out the ... forces that have characterized the changing climate of EU-ACP relations, particularly since the final decade of the 20th century. (More in-depth analyses of some of the forces beyond what is furnished here, as well as how they have been addressed in Cotonou, will be the subject of future/other research.) To provide the context for the discourse in this paper, the next section provides a cursory review of the Lomé Convention (and its precursors) by identifying its key provisions as well as briefly assessing its efficacy. Section three discusses the forces that comprise the changing environment of EU-ACP relations and explicate why Cotonou had to be different from its forerunners. The penultimate section examines the Cotonou Agreement, highlighting, inter alia, its main provisions and innovative features. The discourse concludes with a summary and analysis of Cotonou’s new approach, especially the likelihood that it will accomplish in two decades or less what Lomé failed to achieve in its two-and-a half- decades.